#big fan of the 3rd and 5th one also :3

[trashyandtiredsol]

An assortment of Kurt Wagners cuz yes

[astrow0rldx]

jhene aiko birth chart notes ⭐️

- pisces stellium in 3/6 of her main placements. sun moon and mercury. while neptune falls in her first house. we can definitely see that energy in jhene aiko character, look, music, voice, personality, etc. so ethereal, dreamy, spiritual, idealistic. neptune/pisces rules substances, sleep, astral projection, escapism, etc. she quite literally makes music on sleep, sound bath frequencies, lsd, sativa (marijuana), soul etc. people with neptune in the first tend to draw people in with their ethereal trippy aura. adrina lima, marilyn monroe, kylie jenner, ariana grande, kim kardashian, etc.

🐠🍄🌈🫧🦄🎨✨💫🌞👩‍🎤♓️

- her saturn and uranus is also in the first house. first house plays a part to your physical appearance and saturn in 1st could be why her bone structure is emphasized and she’s slim. uranus in her first house makes her a rebel, free, independent, revolutionary, a freak. pushed in her 1st house she probably is seen as someone with great ideas and fans. added to her sagittarius rising/1st house, emphasis on free and adventurous. independent and experiencing. humanitarian, ideas, and REVOLUTION. different from the norm, unconventional, rebel and inventive.

- just admiring her big 3. pisces sun, pisces moon, sagittarius rising. sagittarius is higher education. she like a pope, a pastor or something. not literally but she has a very spiritual smart big 3 while sagittarius in her 1st house, outlook on life makes her an adventurous experiencer, life of the party.

- her mercury and moon is in the 3rd house. her third house is something that we get to perceive in her word, language, music, poetry etc. she can express her feelings through music, and she can express her way of thinking and communicating through communicating aka music. mercury in 3rd house makes her a great writer and communicater, while also being in the planet of her comfort. Mercury in 3rd house is also her 10th house ruler so to her career, status and reputation she’s a lyrical person. actually her life purpose (north node) is in the 3rd house of communication.

- in her 5th house where we can see her inner child, pleasurable, playful creative side where she shines. she has venus there 💞 and jupiter 🏇. so jupiter is her luck and blessings. so it’s in her creativity, playful, funny party even sexual and pleasurable side. venus is her love life, romance, love language, attraction, aesthetics, beauty, fashion, style. which also falls into that house. so her hobbies can include being blessed and pretty, in love lol. of course more complex than that. but you know. her venus is also in taurus and i love people with this placement. you can tell in her naturalistic aesthetic. outside in nature, jewelry, materialistic but earthy stuff. they usually smell so good and look so put together and natural.

- Pluto in 11th house. Mars in the 2nd house in Capricorn. Heavy Famous Money Making Potiential. Pluto is where her power is, 11th house is all about your fans, your groups, communities, humanitarianism as a whole. revolutions, ideas and inventions. Mars is where her drive is, her motivation and ambition. her passion. it’s in her self worth, her values, her material possessions, her income, her money. in Capricorn it behaves seriously and disciplined.

Asteroids

- Euterpe (27) is an Asteroid of Music, Poetry, Song, etc. it’s also in her 11th house of groups social media fans and communities. it trines her moon & sextiles her mars so in good relationship with her comfort and peace. also her passion and motivation.

- Tone (1266) is her tone of voice. in her 6th house, it plays into her job. where 2nd house is her income, 10th house is her career. 6th house is your slave house the hard work the routines.

- Chiron is in her 7th house. one placement (not the only i know i haven’t mentioned others) that we share. but Chiron is where your wounded at that you can become an expert in to heal others. In her 7th house of relationships.

[boxboxblog]

A General History: Points

Hello, this post is a response to an ask about the points system throughout history. Enjoy!

So, like most things in F1 the points system has changed a lot since it's inception. As stated in the ask I received, it has changed so much that it is pretty difficult to compare past drivers points to what modern drivers score. But why? And how? Let's dive in.

1950s: The Early System

The first points structure in F1. The system awarded points only to the top five finishers, along with one point to the fastest lap. It was simple and created to make counting points easy, but fair, for a much smaller grid. It went as follows:

1st: 8 pts 2nd: 6 pts 3rd: 4 pts 4th: 3 pts 5th: 2 pts

1960s-1990: Big Shifts

During this time there were a few key changes to the original system. For one, the fastest lap point was removed as they hoped to encourage consistency over speed. The points also expanded to include the 6th finisher as well as the grid size grew. The number of points first received also changed to nine. It went as follows:

1st: 9 pts 2nd: 6 pts 3rd: 4 pts 4th: 3 pts 5th: 2 pts 6th: 1 pt

The most unique thing about this era of F1 is that only certain points counted toward the championship, most often the top five or six best results. This was to stop the domination of a single driver who had an overwhelming amount of wins and even the playing field a little. So even if a driver won ten races, only five of the wins would count. This changed in 1981 and full season consistency was brought back to the limelight. This was done mostly because F1 was gaining in popularity and there was a desire among new fans to increase the rewards for victory.

1991-2002: Rewarding Victory

In 1991 the amount of points a winner gets was once more increased, from nine to ten. This was once again in order to get more rewards for finishing first. It was also because it was becoming more common for specific teams to dominate, and they wanted to incentivize them to go after wins even if they were leading the championship. The rest of the system stayed the same, and was as follows:

1st: 10 pts 2nd: 6 pts 3rd: 4 pts 4th: 3 pts 5th: 2 pts 6th: 1 pt

2003-2009: Expanding

This time saw an increase in how many finishes earned points. Second changed to a higher number to make podiums more equal as well. These changes were made in order to reward more drivers for their performance, and to deal with the growing number of teams and drivers. They also hoped to increase competitiveness by giving midfield teams a chance to score points. It was as follows

1st: 10 pts 2nd: 8 pts 3rd: 6 pts 4th: 5 pts 5th: 4 pts 6th: 3 pts 7th: 2 pts 8th: 1 pt

2010-Now: The Modern Era

In 2010 the points system was completely overhauled. There were more teams, more rider, more fans, and more attention. They wanted to make F1 even more of a spectacle and knew that fans wanted to see their drivers score points. It expanded to cover the top ten finishers and rewarded even more points to the top step. This new system was also created to help make championship fight not as tight, which is pretty contradictory to what F1 usually does. It also served to put much more emphasis on podium finishes. The fastest lap point was added back in 2019 as long as the driver finished in the top ten, and showed a new emphasis on speed. The current system goes as follows

1st: 25 pts 2nd: 18 pts 3rd: 15 pts 4th: 12 pts 5th: 10 pts 6th: 8 pts 7th: 6 pts 8th: 4 pts 9th: 2 pts 10th: 1 pt

Sprint race points were also added in 2021. What it means is that points can be scored outside of the main race and count toward the championship. This was added to create more excitement around the championship, and also cause some chaos for fan entertainment. The initial 2021 system only awarded the top three finishers, but now the top eight receive points, with 1st receiving 8 pts and 8th receiving 1 pt. This was changed in 2022 after backlash on how little the sprint results mattered.

So that is an overview of the points system. If you notice, most changes are due to three things; grid size, fan desire, and speed vs consistency.

I hope I answered any questions had.

Cheers,

-B

[tiptapricot]

🌙✨Travelers of the night!✨🌙

The time has come for us to share the month of prompts for Moon KnightCember! This is a collaborative list put together and shaped by many lovely fans who have contributed ideas, designs, information, guidance, and more to make a fun December fan event for all!

This event is open to all forms of Moon Knight, from comics to the MCU show, and participants are welcome to create for any version or mix they desire. Prompts are available every other day to give people the ability to choose their pacing, and one or both prompts can be used depending on preference. When participating, please use the hashtag #MKcember2023!

Good luck in your creative fight, we can’t wait to see what you create!

Big thanks to @crystaljelly64 (who also did all the graphics here), @belablue222, @fdelopera and all the others that contributed to the making of this event! :-D

(Basic IDs in ALT and full image descriptions including written out prompt list and live links under cut! A transcript of the Cinco Pa’ Las Doce Instagram highlight is also included under Resources.)

[ID:

Image 1: The moon knight-cember prompt list. Moon knight envelops the prompt calendar with his cape, white cloth encircling the edges and black filling the background behind the prompts. The Moon Knight-cember title is written in stylized text above the calendar, the C a golden crescent dart and the background behind it light blue and snowy. The prompts read:

1st: “Headspace” and/or “Home Is Where The Heart Is”

3rd: “Supernatural Encounter(s)” and/or “Good Friends”

5th: “Cab-allero” and/or “Constellations”

7th: “Chanukah Sameach” and/or “Gelt and Gus/Crawley”

9th: “Candles” and/or “Chanukiah”

11th: “Chanukah Food” and/or “Dreidel”

13th: “Tzedek” and/or “Perseverance”

15th: “Shabbat” and/or “Kiddush Cup”

17th: “Rainy Day” and/or “VHS Tape”

19th: “Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives” and/or “Notes”

21st: “Judgement” and/or “Negative Space”

23rd: “Blast Off!” and/or “Sink”

25th: “Calm Before The Storm” and/or “Little Bug”

27th: “Floating/Blurry” and/or “Phone Call”

29th: “Reflection” and/or “Every Grain Of Sand”

31st: “Cinco Pa’ Las Doce” and/or “Together”

The days of Hanukkah, December 7th through the 15th, are highlighted in glowing gold. The rest of the prompt text is a light blue.

Image 2: A list of basic definitions for words on the prompt list. The definitions read as follows:

Caballero (Spanish): “Knight” ; “Gentleman”

Chanukah Sameach (Jewish): “Happy Hanukkah”; common greeting during Hanukkah

Gelt (Jewish): chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil and given to others to inspire charity

Chanukiah (Jewish): menorah or lamp used for Hanukkah

Dreidel (Jewish): spinning top; played with during Hanukkah

Tzedek (Jewish): “Justice”; “Fairness”; how things should be

Shabbat (Jewish): the Jewish day of Rest

Kiddush Cup (Jewish): cup of wine that’s blessed during Shabbat/Jewish holiday meals

Cinco Pa’ Las Doce (Spanish): “5 minutes til 12”; a New Years Eve song from South and Central America

Image 3: Text that reads: Links and Sources. For more info on Hanukkah and Shabbat, you can go to myjewishlearning.com, and you can also find examples of prayers and services from Jewish YouTubers!

Check out @belablue222’s story highlight “CPLD 🌙 🕰️” for more details on the song and tradition, as well as how it connects to Moon Knight! (Transcript from Instagram below ID)

Links and recommended posts will also be added below cut!

Image 4: text that reads: Slide 7: Text that reads:

Reminder!

During a time of folks using current events to spread hate and vitriol, it’s important to stand firm with love and support for Jewish people and make sure our spaces are firmly free of antisemitism. Fighting fire with fire is never the solution, and support and action for groups in peril does not and should not require falling to different types of bigotry or antisemitic tropes. MKCember is a celebration of a beloved Jewish character and all aspects of that should be respected and loved, and focus on joy and genuine exploration. While creating your works, be aware, be vigilant, and be informed, and together we can make something lovely! /end ID]

Resources:

MyJewishLearning.com

Chanukah Sameach

Gelt

Chanukiah

Dreidel

Tzedek

Shabbat

Kiddush Cup

Post by @fdelopera about engaging with Moon Knight and Jewish celebrations respectfully and carefully during this challenge

Cinco Pa’ Las Doce Instagram highlight (transcript below)

Transcript of Cinco Pa’ Las Doce deep dive by @belablue222:

“Cinco Pa' las doce: a cultural deep dive and its ties to the moon knight system.

Disclaimer: I am latina, but i cannot speak for all of the traditions practiced or not practiced in all latinoamérica countries due to how many of us there are, as well as how unique each of our traditions are. Because of this, I will be using traditions that are more widely practiced.

As we approach the end of the year, places all over the world prepare to bring in the new year with all sorts of traditions and customs. It is a time of celebrating, mingling, and integrating. It’s a time for one to connect to their background of where they come from, and embrace tradition.

New Years is especially important in latinoamérica, and has traditions that go back decades or even centuries. Today, i will be talking about a well known and beloved tradition, as well as others that are commonly practiced in central and South America.

Cinco Pa’ Las Doce

Written in 1963 and performed by Venezuelan actor and singer Néstor Zavarce, Cinco Pa' Las Doce is a hauntingly beautiful song about a person wanting to run home to hug their mom for New Years, with the sound of bells playing throughout the street. The song became immensely popular throughout latinoamérica throughout the years, and there are many different versions with many different styles, but the original one still remains the iconic classic widely known.

In typical tradition, people with gather together at 11:55pm on New Year’s Eve and spend time together, thinking about past memories, wondering what the new years will bring, and enjoy each others company as the song plays. Once the song ends, it is midnight, and people will celebrate this by doing many different traditions, here are a few of them that are most commonly practiced...

Typical traditions:

Fireworks: like a lot of other places, fireworks are often lit in the biggest of cities, or the smallest of villages, the colors brightening the sky of the new year.

12 uvas: eating 12 grapes at midnight is a tradition that is ment to bring good luck for the new year, and represent 12 wishes that will only come true if the grapes are eaten quickly.

Walking a block with a suitcase: when the clock strikes midnight, some people will grab a suitcase and walk (or even run) a block around their neighborhood for them to be able to travel and go to many places in the new year

Lentils: lentils have significance in many different ways for latam countries. some will eat lentils or lentil soup at midnight, others will pocket them or even wrap 12 of them in a bill, no matter what, lentils are meant to bring good fortune and prosperity for the new year.

Yet what does this all have to do with Moon Knight?

The Moon Knight system in the MCU are both Jewish as well as Latino. New years is a great way for them to connect with their latam roots, while also being respectful to their other traditions as well. They can enjoy latinoamerican foods that are customary to the winter seasons, sing songs in spanish, and enjoy many other things. they could even intigrate things or come up with new traditions so they can comfortably celebrate el año nuevo.

From an artistic standpoint, it's a good way to ponder what their relationship is with these traditions that have deep ties to family, and the potential effects it has on them due to their own relationship with their family. Do they struggle? Do they reclaim? Do they pass these traditions on?

An interesting thing to ponder to the ethereal bells of Cinco Pa' las Doce.” (End of transcript)

[raindropren]

!!!!!! Secret Life Episode 9 Spoilers !!!!!!

THIS SEASON IS SO FUCKING GOOD HELL YA

I LOVE THIS

I LOVE SECRET LIFE

IT'S SO GOOD

I'M

SIIJOHFSIHFJSNF

LETS GO, SCAR!! WOO HOO

I GENUINELY LOVE THIS SO MUCH AAA

ALSO WHY IS PEARL SO CRACKED AT THIS GAME!?!?!

So she was i think 3rd in last life, Won in double life, I think 4th or 5th in limited life, and now, 2nd in Secret life!!

What the F u c k

I love it so much

It really helps all my headcanons tbh, it makes me so happy.

Also why does pearl always survive longer then her allies/teammates(Unless they win)

and by always i mean like, 2 times? 2 and a half? if u count tilly maybe? i do... 2.5 :]

I really do wish joel or bdubs won, mostly joel because it would've been so good but I deffo think scar deserved this win.

I think it wouldve been kind of funny if in the 1v1 battle between scar and pearl.. pearl won... and it's just, awkward cause she... didn't want that. at all.

She wanted scar to win after bdubs and joel died, she wanted to sacrifice her life to scar in the end because she wanted her allies to win.

I also think shiny duo is a tragedy in the end. I really hope someone makes a fanfic about them in secret life cause they just, they, they just, <3 <3 <3

I love them alot

I'm making a theory that Gem might, win the next life seires.

Shiny duo winning their second season, please please please /hj /lh

I've already really loved the pearl fanfics from this season cause omg but I just, i just <3 <3 can't wait to see more!! aaa :D

if i get the motivation i fucking will make a fic about gem and pearl coming back into hermitcraft. They have very similar vibes in the life series(they're fucking crazy, don't mess with them, but also you'd rather be on their side then not(I haven't watched gems life series so if i'm wrong on this one, oopsie) cause they are more loyal then most) and I think it'd be fun to see them coming back and talking to eachother about the season ngl.

Murder camel my beloved, shiny duo my beloved

I also think(if I get the motivation) i'd want to make a fic with Pearl and Bdubs, in hermitcraft, afterwards.

ooo so many ideas, so many ideas so little time and motivation.

i wanna know what would happen if pearl accidentally won, despite not wanting too, if she hit scar just alittle to hard and now she was alone, as the sole 2 time winner. I think AU!pearl would have a mental fucking breakdown but i also think it'd be a fun concept aaaa

I want a fic about Pearl just after Bdubs and Joel died, just crying. like tears down her cheeks when she meets back up with scar and aaaa <3

All these would be my au obviously cause i'm way to obsessed with it but my au is set in canon, mostly. or at least alittle, i'm trying LOL

I'm proud of scar :]

like, i'm proud of all the winners but, i really do feel like scar deserved this win

I might watch his pov at some point, i can't wait for people to tear the angst from scars episodes, they already have alittle but with him winning, I can't fucking wait, omg <3

I'm just so excited now

aaaa

i'm nhjgofubkhgfubkjhdfjl eee

I really hope gem and pearl team next season instead of just being temporary allies because they are so fun omg

I really hope there's another season cause god they are so good /nf

I can't get enough of life series pearl in my au

which is why i keep mentioning her, i've basically only watched her pov cause I have a hard time watching others. I wanna watch gem, lizzies(it's ies right? i'm bad with spelling names aa), and now scars. stars above, i love this series

aaaaaaaaaaaaa

secret is probably my new favorite season, idk why, maybe it's because of shiny duo alittle, but y'know :]

There's so much i wish i wanna talk about

like how Pearl said "Always Watching" to BigB

Or just any moment with Pearl and Scott, I miss their last life dynamic alot /pos /notneg

Cleo and Pearls pupper alliance breaking and Pearl saying she really wanted to be allies with Cleo, like I need fics of that so much guys omg (Big MoonRot fan!! ee)

Anytime Gem, Impulse, and Pearl were in a trio together, like omg, It's Soup Group!!! Guys!!! it's them!!! omg!!!!!!!! guys!!

Pearl walking the Warden around like a pro, i love that so much LOL

there's deffo more, but i've typed way to much LOL i just love this so much, it's insane.

[gleamingtempest]

Danganronpa Despair Time - Fan Game Predictions Discourse & Relation to Danganronpa Death Order Tropes

Hey hey! In danganronpa there are characters that take up a significantly larger portion of the screentime & plot relevance when compared to other characters in the cast; this is something which is almost always universally true when applied to any fan projects which heavily follow the format of a danganronpa game. One aspect which comes with being a 'core character' is very often a tendecy for that character to not die unless it is the 1st, 5th or 6th chapter.

When people make death order predictions for fan projects like DRDT, they sometimes frame things so that characters I might consider obviously 'core characters' die in the 2nd, 3rd or 4th chapters - I am interested in hearing whether or not this is just something I overthink/others don't consciously think about or if there are people who have genuine arguments for why a character who might feel 'core' to the story in a format like this would die in a middle section rather than at the start or a later climatic point in the story.

So basically, if anyone here does believe that a 'core character' in the DRDT cast might die at some point in the middle of the story like the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th chapters, do you mind explaining to me why this is if you even think/or have thought of them as a core character?

Alternatively, if anyone would like to, I would love to see which characters other people consider 'core characters' to the DRDT cast; the ones I consider very important or obviously narratively signficant are Xander, Charles, Whit, Eden, David and Teruko.

One very popular example I've seen of this is the somewhat popular theory that Charles will die in chapter 3 because of a joke Whit made in chapter 1; I personally consider Charles an obvious longterm support character so I would be very interested in hearing people's thoughts on that.

Another thing I would like to note is that obviously, what happens in the canon games doesn't have to be universally applied to fan projects; the tropes present in them being subverted is a big part of the appeal of projects such as these actually, so I fully understand why they might not be adhered to. In this case in particular though, I think it's more of a storytelling trope in general than a danganronpa trope & it's one which is very helpful imo. It feels very awkward to me when a character which receives a lot of setup & attention dies halfway through the story - like an anticlimax in a way.

A weak example of this already happening in DRDT itself would ofc be Xander being the first victim. I would say this feels like a very traditional thing for danganronpa to do as a way to set up it's narrative; giving a character a significant portion of the screentime early on & a close connection to the protagonist so that when they die first they maintain their general importance as a figure in the story while also allowing for other character to take on a more central role in the plot going forward.

That's only one chapter though, so it's not really the strongest example haha. It'll be more obvious whether or not we're adhering to this going forward in the story I assume.

But yeah, super interested in hearing any thoughts on this! I can't say it's something I understand very well but it is something which I consider somewhat valuable for discussion. ^^

[bohnsky]

Honestly after Qatar I was anything but motivated to post, so here it is for Qatar and Texas.

I literally still feel sick thinking about what the drivers had to go through just because Qatar has money. It physically hurts me. I'm honestly just glad that everyone is okay now.

That being said here are my favorite drivers 5,5 months into liking f1:

1. Alex Albon

As always, my beloved. This guy made me support Williams in the first place and now they have become my second favorite team (after Ferrari of course, because I apparently like pain). It sometimes feels like they're the only one's who really care for their drivers.

In Texas I was really stressed out like what do you mean 0,3s away from the points in the sprint race? And what do you mean 11th in the race?

2. Sergio Perez

Checo is the sweetest, I love his smile so much and it felt good to see so many Checo fans over there in Texas, not only haters. He was doing okay this week, but Lewis is getting closer and closer and I'm scared. I just need him to be good in Mexico, otherwise I'm going to quit watching F1 (I would never but please Checo please)

3. Lewis Hamilton

This was a hard decision. But I've been obsessing over Lewis again these past few weeks so he gets 3rd for now. Even though him being good literally tears my soul apart. I want him to be good, but he's a danger to Checo my beloved. I am sooo happy that Mercedes seem to get closer to Red Bull and that Lewis might have even had a chance today if the race had been just a few laps longer. But at the same time, please be worse than Checo.

Also Lewis is one of the very few men that I find breathtakingly beautiful. He is so gorgeous. And I love his tattoos. Especially his hand tattoos.

Fun Fact: My dad watched the Qatar GP with me, which was his first race ever and now he keeps refering to Lewis as the one who never makes it past turn one. Can't wait to tell him that the one who never makes it past turn one almost got Max.

4. Charles Leclerc

This was another hard decision, because I love Charles, but the past few weeks I barely paid attention to him (not because I didn't want to, but because there were so many other things to focus on, plus Uni sucks). I have thought about putting him on 5th, but who am I kidding, I love Charles too much and when he took pole I basically had the same reaction as Matt from p1. But I didn't really have time to be sad, about him losing P1 so early, because there was so much happening.

Also both Ferraris have been doing quite good, just not good enough, which is sad, but at least they didn't have any major strategy fuck-ups.

5. Lando Norris

I almost put him in 4th. This is mainly because I totally fell in love with Team Quadrant and was watching almost all of their youtube videos. Texas quali was the first time is tuned in to Max Fewtrell's watch along and I couldn't help but cheer along for Lando. And for the first half of the race I thought that there might be a chance for him to get his first win. It's kinda frustrating watching him being on the podium every weekend but never on the top step.

Honorable mentions:

Lance. He's really close to taking 5th. I might just have two 5th places next time. I might feel for him even more than I feel for Checo. And that means something. My boy passing out in the car in the middle of the race in Qatar? I literally couldn't sleep after reading about all of this. Just imagine the things that could have happened. I could cry just thinking about it. And then the dnf in the sprint race in Texas. He was doing so good and then that. But at least we got some Strollonso content and two stroints. Good race for him today.

Logan. I didn't think I'd ever say that, but Logan has kinda sneaked his way into my heart. He's nowhere near the top five but same as Checo and Lance, I just want him to have a good race for once. Qatar might have opened my eyes about him. That he was the only driver with the balls to retire for the sake of his health. And a big thanks to Williams for being so lovely. I feel like no other team would be so understanding. Sure you could say they have nothing to lose, but still. It takes some bravery to do. And I'm happy they did.

Also the Texas race was quite good, happy for Logan. Even though the rest of the weekend sucked.

Fernando. I don't know how and when it happened but I feel myself growing fonder of Fernando every day. I realized during quali when I was really upset that both Williams, both Astons and Hulk were out in Q1. So, all five of them, drivers that I wanted to see doing well. And the dnf in the race sucked so bad. Both Astons did so well and then that.

But then again, at least we got some Strollonso content. Fernando always pointing his camera at Lance is so cute.

Also him dead ass asking the team to pour water over him in Qatar might be my favorite thing ever.

Nico. Also no idea where that came from, but I realized that I have developed a huge soft spot for Nico. It started with me being interested in how he does because he's German. Then I started to genuinely like him and now I have this huge soft spot for him. It's not like he's competing for the top five though. It kinda feels like he has his own category (again, might be the German in me talking). I respect him big time, spitting facts about how shitty Haas is and frequently driving that shit box into the points. But I don't really search for content about him. Except for Hulknussen every now and then.

Speed round:

Oscar's safe (mad respect, many would have sent that into the wall) and stupid dnf. Also Loscar is kinda cute.

Alpine being sponsored by Travis Kelce. I just think it's funny how the whole Taylonso thing comes full circle now with Tay's new boyfriend basically buying Fernando's ex team.

Also Esteban just casually talking about throwing up in his helmet...

Nico Rosberg. I initially didn't like him, but he does spit facts and I appreciate that.

Yukierre. They're too cute for my little heart.

Pierre and Danny Ric. It's crazy to me how two drivers who literally used to be my favorites at some point are now totally irrelevant to me. I still like them, but in a normal way. Which is weird. I'm not used to being normal about something.

F1 acadamy slaying. And Bianca in McLaren :)

Women.

(Please can we talk about queen Susie?)

That's it for now. Give me your thoughts.

[raspberrylix]

(some) KnB characters and their favorite kpop acts

After seeing a post by @imalwaysinconfusion, I could not stop thinking about the characters and the type of music they would listen to, as music is very cool and event more important to me as knb. But then my recent expertise lies mainly in kpop so this the post. All credits for the idea go to them, hope me doing this is okay :] Most of these are based on vibes and vibes alone

Akashi Seijūrō

(Honestly I’m having a hard time with him, so many signals and yet nothing I could understand, great start)

BIBI

Day6

Midorima Shintarō

Shinee + gg (taemin bias)

Him and Kise have a similar taste but it’d say Midorima is more chill (but don’t come across him on twt during yet another fanwar)

Kise Ryōta

Loona

Itzy

NewJeans

Jeon Somi (when I think of fast forward, I see Kise, why is that?)

XG

He’s either the most nicest person you can meet at the concert or he won’t be afraid to drop kick someone from being a bg stan, the line is very thin

Aomine Daiki

Ateez(!!!)

MonstaX

P1Harmony

Stray Kids (with this I’m really not sure, but he’d love megaverse and side effects for sure)

Murasakibara Atsuchi

Xdinary Heroes

Ateez (Mura would love FOB -> mingi loves FOB -> I love both ATZ and FOB with mingi being my bias-> dots are connected)

Either Woodz or Gaho or both but both of those might be too light for him

Dreamcatcher (feels like Himuro’s influence)

Kuroko Tetsuya

Day6 (wonpil bias, won’t elaborate)

DPR, DPR LIVE in particular

Hoody

Dean, heavy on him

Kagami Taiga

Stray Kids

iKON

bold shot, but somehow, I feel like he would like BlackPink a lot

epik high

Woodz

Kiyoshi Teppei

Seventeen

GOT7

Red Velvet, heavy on Red Velvet

T-ARA, KARA

TEEN TOP, B.A.P, Block B, VIXX, basically all the best from early-mid 3rd gen

he's the chill type and would get along with everyone, despite their music taste and would try to learn about one's favorite artists, if he doesn't know them. he also misses how back in the day idols would interact between groups

Hyūga Junpei

Kard

SuperM

Cheetah

Rolling Quartz <3

he just likes badass people, dunno

Izuki Shun, aka a man with perfect taste

DPR IAN

J-hope

BIBI

Jamie (!)

Koganei Shinji

Xikers, definitely xikers

Billlie

5th gen stan for sure

Takao Kazunari

NCT all units

Riize (maybe)

SM gg

Basically I see him as a huge SM stan

Sakurai Ryō

Lucy

Onewe

AKMU

Himuro Tatsuya

The Rose

Tablo

Woodz

Dreamcatcher

Aida Riko

Yezi

AleXa

G-(i)dle

Mamamoo

(i just think she's very cool and would love cool woman of kpop)

Momoi Statsuki

Nmixx

TXT

enhypen

Oriwara Shigehiro

NCT dream

Riize, big fan of riize, totally has mastered play a guitar move

was this post just me assigning my own favorite artists to these characters, thus making a situation where they had to be my bffs? mayhaps. but i had a lot of fun

[hometoursandotherstuff]

Ingek73 found this amazing renovated canal apt. in the Netherlands. The home was built in 1720, has 3bd. 1ba. and is priced at  €1.3M / $1.373M.

Isn’t this unique? The foyer has a faux curtain mural on the walls. 

The spacious bright apt. has a mezzanine. 

Walls of windows provide beautiful views. Notice the beautiful inlaid floors.

The modern kitchen has a nice layout w/a handy 5th burner on the cooktop.

I’m not a big fan of open concept. so I like the separation of the kitchen and dining area. 

A door opens out to a wonderful terrace. This is nice. 

Bd. #1 is large and has a great built-in closet plus a built-in dresser, too. 

The windows have a pretty pattern of frosted glass for privacy, yet the natural light is unobstructed. 

Nice walk-in closet and dressing area.

Here’s a small home office. Or, if you don’t need an office, it can be a closet, studio or craft space. 

There’s only 1 bath, but it’s pretty big and has a soaker tub and a big shower.

Stairs to the mezzanine.

There’s a lot going on up here- look at this beautiful large bd. If you don’t need 3 bds. it could be a library or family room.

And, the 3rd bd. is also up here. 

Nice bright hallway. Some apt. buildings have such dark dreary ones. (I’m not fond of mine- it’s gray.)

The building has an elevator, too.

https://www.funda.nl/koop/amsterdam/appartement-42086916-keizersgracht-430-b/

[daily-leoneed]

Monthly Overview ✭ Mar-Apr

To start off Daily Leo/need’s first Monthly Overview, I am pleased to announce we finally got Saki’s Colorful Festival card! With this the first rotation is completed and all of Leoni have a ColorFes card.

Here is a look at Saki’s Fragment SEKAI. It has multiple references to characters and possibly the keyboardist’s 3rd Focus Event ‘No Seek, No Find’.

Running alongside Saki as a part of Project SEKAI’s 3.5 Anniversary banner is Honami and KAITO [School SEKAI] as featured characters in the event ‘Rise as ONE!’. This means Hona now has 6 Limited Cards and KAITO has 5.

And to wrap up the JP server’s part of the overview, in April the second character focus will be Saki’s 5th. The song will be composed by scop. She gets to finish of the first rotation of Colorfes cards and start off Leoni’s 5th focus event rotation! This is a big day for Saki and Leoni fans alike.

For the 2.5 Anniversary Banner on EN server, we also have a Leoni member alongside a VS. This time around it’s Shiho and Miku [School SEKAI] as featured characters in the event ‘In the Corner of a Resonate Town’. It was Shiho’s 5th limited card and Miku’s 4th.

To finish it off, as April’s first character focus event, Saki! April sure is her month, even if she was born in May. The event is titled ‘Get Over It’ with the song ‘Aioi’ composed by Yairi. It features 4 ✭ cards for Saki, Honami and MEIKO. You can purchase a 3✭ Ichika and a 2✭ Shiho from the event shop.

That’s all for the end of March and the beginning of April. Big upcoming events in the next 2 months is Saki’s birthday, and two mixed events featuring Leoni members in May. Have fun, hope your pulls are amazing, and stay tuned at the end of April for the next Monthly Overview!

[hath-e]

So now that I've actually watched 10 anime I wanted to rank them from best to worst

1. MSG: the Witch from Mercury; I have not seen any other Gundam show but I don't think this one is leaving #1 spot ever, and Bandai were cowards and homophobic for not showing us either a kiss or the wedding even though they got married, also I'm so mad that I episode 11 during the hug they didn't even say "I love you". The robots became the least interesting part of the robot show (8th I watched)

2. Bocchi the Rock!; probably what I want most anime to be, can't wait for the movie('s), this, G-Witch and Your Name might as well both be #1, also I want a cute Bocchi plush but I can't find one that's affordable without a high delivery :< (7th I watched)

3. Your Name; A movie that I found on a trans subreddit about a year ago, I didn't think it'd be as good as it was or that it'd affect me as much as it did, but I was left in tears when the credits came on, the story went somewhere completely than I thought it would, 10/10. also tied for first place, it deserves to be watched in a movie theater so much (10th I watched)

4. Cowboy Bebop; twink and his bear friend go on space adventures oh and the twink has his own shadow the hedgehog (6th one I watched)

5. BNA: Brand New Animal; the one of 2 studio Trigger show I've seen but from what I've read and heard they have a pretty mid reputation, I really liked it tho, I watched it around the time I came out and it's a pretty good trans allegory (still feel a tad weird about the ending) (4th one I watched)

6. Neon Genesis Evangelion (and the 1st movie); (don't)Get in the robot Shinji, I had been interested in it a bunch, big robots and all that, but only just got to it. The self perpetuating loop of abuse and trauma that Shinji and everyone gets put through because Genduo can't get over the death of his wife is horrible and I can't think of a more despicable antagonist than him, the movie was so fucked up. I still struggle to get what Seele was supposed to represent. I loved every scene where the Eva's get shown as demons, those looked real cool (9th I watched) (watched it entirely cuz of Signalis)

7. Cyberpunk Edgerunners; watched this before I played the game, the abuse that David went through combined with the end that I miss interpreted put me a bit off and I missed the point, but I got it after a rewatch (3rd one I watched)

8. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure; now that I've grown as a person I can safely say that it deserved to drift from spot 1, part 4 is still my fave. And it's still really really good in spite of how low it is (1st I watched)

9. Guilty Gear Xrd & Strive story mode; I am both counting and lumping them together, I liked the oversized Smurf with a gun, also Elphelt bby girl, still would've preferred an actual game tho(5th one I watched)

100000000000. Future Diary; I've watch this in a trade to get someone else to watch JoJo's, they came out better off with that deal, I am also no longer friends with that person (not because of the show but it's funny to mention) (2nd I watched) I still think it's missing some zeros, just add however many you believe it needs

Honorable mentions:

- Signalis; I know it's not an anime but it's anime adjacent and it's the best story I've ever played through, I don't even like horror games or gore at all that much but I will 100% this game and get all the endings, I wish I could talk about it more but spoiling ANYTHING about it feels wrong and making posts where half the words are censored just so fans get it isn't gonna work

- Pokemon; I loved the XYZ and B&W runs but I haven't watched it all and only remember catching it on TV

-Scott Pilgrim takes off, I watched the first few episodes, I don't particularly care for it, but it looks pretty good

Dishonorable mentions:

- Attack on Titan; I've had a run in with the series back when season 1 came out, back when I thought gore was cool, now I have negative interest in the series, I literally couldn't care less and I'm only putting it here to be fair

Conclusion:

After the Witch from Mercury and Evangelion, I don't care for big robots as much as I used to.

Oh and I'm watching some more soon-ish gimme recommendations

[best-evangelion-girl]

all the characters in the best non human evangelion character competition so far:

angels from neon genesis evangelion:

Adam

Lilith

Sachiel (3rd angel)

Shamshel (4th angel)

Ramiel (5th angel)

Gaghiel (6th angel)

Israfel (7th angel)

Sandalphon (8th angel)

Matarael (9th angel)

Sahaquiel (10th angel)

Ireul (11th angel)

Leliel (12th angel)

Bardiel (13th angel)

Zeruel (14th angel)

Arael (15th angel)

Armisael (16th angel)

Kaworu Nagisa (technically not human, so he counts)

angels from the rebuilds that aren't just repeats of angels from nge:

unnamed third angel (giant scorpion dinosaur thing that Mari fights at the beginning of 2.0)

unnamed seventh angel (bipedal clock thing from 2.0)

unnamed eighth angel (rainbow winged thing from 2.0)

unnamed twelfth angel (freaky shape shifting thing sealed inside mark.06 in 3.0)

angels from other pieces of eva media:

insubstantial angel (from neon genesis evangelion: second impression video game for sega saturn)

diemay angel (fan made angel designed by Satou "Diemay" Daimei, a winner of a contest to have an original angel design be illustrated by Yoh Yoshinari)

shateiel and turel (conceptual angels from the neon genesis evangelion proposal)

iblis and barachiel (angels created for the game Neon Genesis Evangelion RPG: The NERV White Paper)

adovaquiel, azrael, atalibu, and zefon (angels created for another game, Neon Genesis Evangelion RPG: Decisive Battle in Tokyo-3)

non angel characters (robots and computers and more):

eva unit 00 (piloted by Rei) (technically also unit 00', when it changes to blue armor when it's repaired after remiels attack) [let me know if 00 and 00' should be separate characters]

eva unit 01 (piloted by Shinji)

eva unit 02 (piloted by Asuka)

eva unit 03 (piloted by Toji) (I'm classifying unit 03 as the entity before it's possessed, and bardiel as the corrupted entity)

eva unit 04 (not actually ever seen in nge, but was in some promotional material, and mentioned by name only in the anime)

mass production evas (eoe)

Evangelion Proto Type-00, Evangelion Test Type-01, Evangelion Production Model-02, Evangelion Production Model-03 (rebuilds) (basically the same, just with longer names and ever so slightly different designs)

Evangelion Provisional Unit-05 (piloted by Mari in 2.0)

Evangelion Production Model Custom Type-08 (piloted by Mari in 3.0) (there's also the upgraded versions in 3.0+1.0, the one at the beginning of the movie with the big ass gun attachments is apparently called Type-08beta, and the version seen at the climax that can fuse with other evas is apparently called Type-08gamma. I'm debating whether I should consider these different characters.)

Evangelion Mark.06 (piloted by Kaworu in 2.0, and seen fused to lilith in 3.0)

Evangelion Mark.09 (piloted by the Rei clone in 3.0)

Evangelion 13 (piloted by both Shinji and Kaworu in 3.0)

Unit 01 berserk mode (multiple episodes)

Unit 00 berserk mode (episodes 5 and 14)

Unit 02 beast mode (from the rebuilds. technically different from berserk, as the pilot is still in control)

Magi-1: Melchior

Magi-2: Balthasar

Magi-3: Casper

Pen Pen

send me asks and let me know what other characters I should add. the rules for this competition are pretty dumb and silly. for this competition, a character can be really any object at all, it doesn't necessarily have to be alive. the only real hard rule is that they can't be human. (they can still be part human or take the form of a human. the evas have human souls, and Kaworu appears as a human teenager, but both of those are different enough from actual humans)

I'm still debating if I should include the goofy spin off characters, like just straight up optimus prime from the transformers crossover, or godzilla from an Godzilla /Kamen rider / Evangelion themed ride in universal studios Japan

[gladiatorcunt]

Didn’t know you were a kpop fan babe 😧 Kinda not surprised, but still… Your faves?

“kinda not surprised” erm

(i got into it like around 2015 and i typically go for 3rd gen to earlier when it comes to music, also i don’t interact with any fandoms on social media anymore since i’ve gotten older (and i don’t rlly keep up with the idols themselves) beyond what edits i see or what gets so popular i have to see it on my fyp)

red velvet (my girlies)

loona (haseul could’ve been the baekhyun of loona if they used her properly beyond 1 line)

exo (masterclass in discography and actually being a capital i idol but also mess and mismanagement, arguably a big part of some of their issues is the tension between sk and china, etc.)

vixx (still a fair bit underrated imo when you consider how long they’ve been active, their vocal ability, being known for their concepts, like ughhhhh leo is one of the only idols who i will be like ‘that’s my husband and we have 6 kids <3’ about)

monsta x (very solid discography, talented, rappers that genuinely have something which there a lot of rappers in kpop groups just bc they’re trying to get appeal, still mildly irritated over the wonho thing bc the way companies deal with stuff like that when the idol is innocent is just so annoying. queen is one of the best bsides in kpop history.)

ramble under the cut

honorary shinee (jonghyun is my golden standard male vocalist), boa, snsd, sunmi, btob mentions

unfortunately jay park is cute and i do like mommae, dean’s like one album he did (i didn’t listen to the other one if that even was a full second album), i used to fw hyuna but she’s pissed me the fuck off

fave time out jail ig: bts (just really grew out of being into them ig since boy with luv came out, some of their tiktok fanbase proudly bullying people and how i feel about the quality of their music now (missing house of cards type quality) + the western validation debate + being on tumblr when people made jungkook’s whole personality at 19 yrs old being goo goo ga ga over banana milk and having a noona kink)), nct (the t*eil thing, but imo if people like that want to hide then they will so i think at least some of the members didn’t know, i don’t keep up with that so i’m not sure if any other info has since come out. i believe he did it with how things are rn and as a csa survivor i just feel a bit gross with being overly supportive of them)

and then there is the can of worms that is the group named after colors (another case where imo they were better earlier on, playing with fire >>>>)

i don’t really have any 4th gen faves, i love ateez and i like some stray title tracks (as in random not stray kids lmao) & bsides from groups here and there

i have mixed feelings about 4-5th gen (imo music is not the focus so much as international reach and social media presence), riize (wonbin is so fine though like sm employs pretty boy idols and refuses to manage them properly) and new jeans (i really wished i liked their music because literally everyone else does), ive’s title tracks are pretty solid (i don’t know anything about their bsides), le sserafim is ehhhhhhhh (i think i literally only like anti fragile + they do need to improve technically for me), enhyphen (i will say is the closet to being a fave for me because i eat up their obsessive songs that are apparently about their webtoon???????? and that one jyp cover (i assume bc he was there) bangs, also again they’re fine 😖)

for the life of me i can’t fully commit to aespa but their concept is cool (and the lore should stick to them and not be attached to every sm group imo)

talking about the songs i like & listen to regularly/industry opinions is a different discussion (that i dipped into too much here) i fear so i’ll shut up!!! i could probably get back into it if a company debuted a group and was like ‘안녕하세요! we are D.I.L.F!’ and the members are all at least in their mid 40’s and they groan when they try to bow

[clevercatchphrase]

2023 Year In Review~

at the time of me writing this, it is 8:11pm on tuesday night, january second. Let's see how long it takes me to type this entire thing. I expect no less than two hours. This is gonna be a long one, so I'm gonna put it under a read-more. Proceed only if you dare!

So! Another year down, another begun, and this is my.... 5th? time looking back on my year and assessing what I accomplished and what I did. Lots of changes and new things happened to me this year! Not nearly as many good things as bad! But first I'm gonna dig up my old resolutions list and see how well I did on them. Let's see... for 2023 I had 9 goals, six of which were serious and 3 of which were more casual. those goals were;

Read 12 new books in a year (one book a month)

Finish the Snowdin Arc before Ghost Switch's 5th birthday

Rewrite the 3rd draft of my Nanowrimo project from 2021/22

Write 4 one-shots for BSaPT

Solidify the details of the waterfall arc

The one secret goal

Finish writing the last 4 chapters of Clemency and finally post the dang thing

build a comic buffer of 8 pages, and finally,

write the crack fic

Of these nine goals, I achived... 4 of them, those being reading 12 books, finishing the snowdin arc before june 18th, rewriting my 2021 nanowrimo project, and finalizing the waterfall arc for Ghost Switch. All of these were serious goals, which I am proud of! but it was still less than half, which was a little disappointing. As in past years, I'll go into more detail below:

Read 12 books I BLEW THIS ONE OUT OF THE WATER! the grand total of books I read this year was THIRTY-SIX! three times as many! In fact, I forced myself to stop in order to have more books to read for 2024! Most of the books I listened to this year were through librivox, and mostly on my commute to work. Great way to pass the time! I wrote short little notes about the books I read on a personal discord with only me in it, so let me see if I can just copy and paste all of that here... (all of my original notes will be italicized, while additional thoughts on it now will not be)

1) Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Short, cute! Inspirational. About self actualization. Read by richard Harris. People call this a demonic book?? Apparently a fourth part added in 2014. Look it up later. (Edit; I never did look it up later. there's an audiobook for this on youtube, and while the voice is nice, there is, like, a solid 10 minute segment with a single violin note playing in the background and it is GRATING) 2) fire bed and bone. Ok. Middle of the road. Too focused on people and not the dog, but I get that's the point. it's ~symbolic~. Like the use of no dialogue and no name for the main dog 3) dogs of the spires book 1: reads like fan fiction (derogatory). Sentences go on for 4 or 5 words too long. Used the word orbs for eyes 3 times. Duke is ALWAYS FUCKING GRINNING. Half-brother reveal makes no sense and comes out of nowhere. How… Big/old is Step? Talks waaay too mature for a kid. What happened to Twig? Very tell and not show. Pink foam pink foam pink foam. Why are dogs separated? Hoe do the packs work? Why training? Not given enough to care for characters. Feels like a warrior cat reskin. Too rushed and yet nothing happens at the same time. (I was very curious about post-apocolyptic xenofiction this year, and this was one of the books I could find on the matter, but it's very childishly written and just... bad. Surprisingly, there seems to be a very tiny but dedicated fandom for it on youtube? the series has a fandom wiki anyway...)

4) old granny fox. Very cute! A little repetitive, but passable for a children's novel. Great introduction to xenofiction for kids. Wonderful audio book. 5)the adventures of Sammy Jay. Short sweet also a lot of fun. Both books are Definitely of their time with their usage of the word "queer" as a synonym for "strange/odd"

Now, this is a little known fact about me, but I'm secretly a massive furry. yeah, who could've guessed, right? Anyway, i'm always on the look out for good xenofiction, and when I searched through the "animals" playlist of the librivox youtube channel and stumbled across the books by Thornton W Burgess, I was INSTANTLY enamored. Old Granny Fox, and The Adventures of Sammy Jay were the first two I read/listened to, and was immediately captivated. I MUST give extra props to the narrators of these audiobooks, with some of the more frequent readers for this series doing unique voices for each character, which really added to the charm (Jude Somers and John Lieder particularly come to mind). I WISH I had these books as a kid. I love the way they describe animal behavior and reasoning. While it is anthropomorphized, it never crosses a line into "too" human, if that makes sense. There's another book on this list that is very similar to Burgess' work, with talking animals, but in that book, the animals make and read signs on the doors of their houses, and go to animal tailors to get their clothes fit. this doesn't happen in Burgess' work. Sure, they talk about their homes and the coats they wear, but it's all very intentionally conveying their natural states and habitats in a slightly more human way for us to picture them. Sure, the art on the covers of the books may say otherwise, but it's never depicted that way in the actual text. All their behavior is very animalistic, too, explaining their thoughts and actions in a way that would make sense for a wild forest creature. These books are a little gentle when it comes to the cycle of life. While the predator characters do need to hunt, they are always juuuust out of luck when they are the main character, and the prey characters juuuust manage to escape each time they're the focus. I will definitely be reading more of Burgess' books this year (the man wrote over 170 of them!), but expect quite a few more titles of his to pop up on this list.

6) adventures of jimmy skunk 7)adventures of paddy beaver (not much to say on these two. both were charming, but I feared I would have sounded repetitive if I just kept writing "cute!" in my notes) 8) my father's dragon Short, cute and silly. Listened to the audiobook. Does the physical have pictures? Not really so much about the dragon. Wish there was more after the ending, like what became of the dragon? (I also watched the netflix movie adaptation of this book. I.... could not stand the dragon in the movie. I'm sorry, he's annoying as hell) 9)adventures of buster bear

10)adventures of old mister toad.Favorite one so far. Puts toads in a positive light and describes them as beautiful instead of ugly or gross. [Burgess] Really appreciates all animals and their unique abilities and traits

11) The tale of freddie firefly. Ehh, okay. Not as great as Thorton Burgess' books, but still enjoyable. Not the same 'voice'. (this book was written by Scott Bailey) 12) The adventures of Chatterer the red squirrel. Fine~ Fun. 13) The Fox That Wanted Nine Golden Tales. Funny, short. Would make a good 22 minute short film 14)tale of master meadow mouse. Alright~ why do the animals know what groundhogs day and February are? How does mouse know how to write, and fox to read? Do they wear clothes? Mention a tailor frog. Oars for a raft. Don't like the animals being described as "(color) person". Feels like it's missing an adjective, ie "feathered" or "furred". (This is what I was talking about above. Scott Bailey wrote very similar stories to Burgess, but something was just... off about is writing style. ) 15) the adventures of reddy fox. Okay. Feels like an earlier book. Not as kind as the other ones. (I later looked it up and confirmed this was one of the earlier books in his series, and this one was, like, his tenth ever published one)

16) the adventures of jerry muskrat

17) the tale of doctor Doolittle. Fun! Kiiiiiinda racist in the africa parts, but an overall good time! (I'm more familiar with the Doolittle movies, but was surprised to learn that Doolittle's ability to speak to animals was something he learned with effort and practice, and not a magic power or weird innate ability of his. It was an interesting read!) 18) Nomads of the North. Fun animal romp. I Flinched at the use of "fat" "tar baby" "half breed" and "Indians". First half is mostly about the bear, then a sudden sharp turn to mostly about the dog. Kinda meanders, has no over-arching through-line, conflict or plot. (Apparently a movie was based off of this book, but focused more on the humans than the animals. Eh, it was the 1920s. what can you do) 19)falcons of nerabedla; short sci-fi novella about a bodyswap time traveler. Its… Fine. Not the greatest. A little too confusing and kind of wish they explained things more earlier on. Not really about the falcons. Even for a sci-fi, still pretty sexist in the future.(honestly I don't even know if I should count this as it's own book. I'm pretty sure it was a short story inside a bigger magazine?) 20) south American jungle tales. Enjoyable! Very strong jungle book vibes with a South American flare. The story with the racoon was pretty dark, though. 21) a gryphon's journey. Too fast pace. Characters have a habit of spilling their entire backstories onto arias without prompting. Not enough show, not enough explanation of how the gryphons work. Some aspects completely pushed to the sides, like the satyrs and naugi until the end. Very rushed. The skyhaven arc could have been its own book, the stygagryph arc could have been it's own book. The heron gryph arc could have been it's own book. Not enough time to get to know the characters or care about them. Arias speaks far too maturely for his age, I feel. (Still on a gryphon kick from the last... two years now? Mostly I'm waiting for the fourth book in the Griffin Ranger Series to come out before I read the third. The author said it would come out before the end of 2023, but that date came and went and it still isn't on amazon at the time of writing (which is now 9:26pm, jeez...) I want to read isthmus so bad, but I don't want to wait on a cliffhanger) 22) myths and legends from Alaska. Okay. Feels very white washed and overly simplified. missing nuance. Reader is so deadpan and monotone that the audio book was a slog to get through (One thing I was determined to do for my own enrichment this year was to read more legends and mythologies from other cultures. There are SO MANY cool creatures and monsters and ideas out there, and I just feel so LIMITED by the small amount I know. We humans come up with some of the craziest shit imaginable!) 23) the white czar; a story of a polar bear. Bad, boring, incredibly racist. Barely about the bear at all! 24) the twins of buster bear. Another thornton w. Burges book. Its middle of the road. Certainly not bad, but my least favorite so far. Just kinda dull, and the audio book was horrendous. (honestly if the audiobook wasn't so bad, I wouldn't have disliked it so much, but it was a CHORE to listen to this one. I mean, thank you librivox for doing all this work for free, but is it too much to ask for some sort of vetting process for your volunteer readers??) 25) the wishing stone stories; BEST thornton w burges book so far! I would have been obsessed with this book as a child. Transforming into animals to learn about their ways. Not super PG like the others. The animals hunt and kill and get killed. 10/10

26) lightfoot the leaping goat 27) Toto the bustling beaver. Both alright. Nowhere near as charming as thornton Burgess, but endearing none the less. A little more 4th wall breaking. Toto audio book fun with silly voices, but I don't like the description of "tramps". A little too humanized for me. Lightfoot audio book fucking trash. Almost gave up. (Both of these books were written by Richard Barnum, another children's xenofiction writer of the time, but I quickly came to realize that his writing style is just not for me. I listened to a handful of his books too, this year, but they left me feeling uncomfortable more often than not because common attitudes of the time period reeeeeally show through his work.) 28) the adventures of poor misses quack. How do these qualify as adventures. She lands in a pond, dumps her backstory for 60 percent of the book, finds her mate and lives happily ever after. Not very strong, not very adventurous. 29) Mother West Wind "When" Stories; a lot of fun, charming, Aesop fable-esque. Fun mythology for children. A little too much peter rabbit, but I understand why he's there 30) the adventures of tamba the tame tiger. Yeahhhh, this series isnt my thing. A little too humanized, and the audio book is fuck GARBAE. (Pretty sure I meant to say "fucking garbage" there, but "fuck garbae" is funnier)

31) joust 32) alta 33) sanctuary All really good! All revolve around dragons and their usage and care. The books are a liiiiiitle too serendipitous, with the right thing always happening at the right time. Vetch/kuron doesn't "fail" enough. Second book is the best so far because the magi are a legitimate threat and it feels like time is running out so they must always stay one step ahead. (All written by Mercedes Lackey, all about dragon husbandry with a nice Egyptian flare! Check them out! But... maybe skip Aerie, the last in the series. It's not really worth it.) 34)aerie weakest one. Ahketen was absolutely unbearable and I didn't like the literal deus ex machina at the end with the actual gods coming down to help. Final ranking in order from best to worst; 2)alta, 1)joust, 3)sanctuary and 4)aerie. 35) the adventures of johnny chuck. Fun, average. Simple but doesn't need to be complicated. First of the thornton books ive read where the main character forms a family with children as the main focus 36) blacky the crow. Fun and charming as always. Feels a little simpler than the others with only 3 main mini stories, two of which involve stealing eggs. I wonder if I can find a box set of these books. (Aaaand that wraps up all the books I read this year! 15 of them were from thornton w burgess, and I hope to read even more from him this year! If you know of Burgess' books, tell me your favorites! I'd love to discuss them with someone~)

2.WHOO! the time is now 9:50, and I am just starting on talking about my second goal, which was to finish the snowdin arc of Ghost Switch before its 5th birthday. I did this! I did this exactly on june 18th! (for public readers, anyway. Anyone on my patreon got the page early, but a one week difference isn't much in the grand scheme of things.) I also get to say that I passed the Snowdin Test this year! "What is the Snowdin Test," you might ask? well, it's something a mutual acquaintance of mine, from the Fan Fic Paradise discord I lurk in, made aaaaall the way back in 2018, right when I was just startin' out with Ghost Switch. (Hi, Vikingaspoke, I don't know if you follow me on tumblr, or even have a tumblr for that matter, but I want you to know I thought about your thesis every single day since you first posted it, and have been determined (har har) to succeed where so many other undertale stories have failed. I did it once with my Epic-long fan fic, You Monster, but to do the same in comic form was a new and unique challenge. it took me almost 5 years, but I got there in the end! Cutting out the memories, I've officially concluded snowdin and started waterfall just this year!) I've also got to mention that I think my estimation on how long it will take me to finish Ghost Switch is slowly unfolding to be oddly accurate. I've never made a comic this long, but back in 2019, when I made an anniversary comic for Ghost Switch's 1st birthday, I guestimated that it would take me roughly 11 more years to finish the story, meaning it would take me 12 in total from start to finish. Well, we are rapidly approaching the half-way point of the comic, and if I haul ass it get to 312 pages out by the 6th birthday, we very well might actually hit it. I haven't drawn up to page 312 yet, but it's strangely close. Granted, my guess didn't account for the length of the flashback segments, which may push it back, but the sheer Idea that the "vibes" I got on how long each arc would take just by roughly judging the time it took me to finish ruins as a baseline to compare... it's just weird, man. I just "felt" that snowdin would be 1.5 times as long as the ruins, waterfall 2 times as long as the ruins, and hotland+New Home also 1.5 times that of the ruins. I have no metric for this since the final scenes were not written out yet. It just... feels like it should be that, and I'm kinda scared at how on track it's been.

3. Third goal was to Rewrite my Nanowrimo project from 2021/22. I did this as well! It's still no where near a final draft ready for beta readers or anything, and towards the end of the year I got distracted writing the second book in the trilogy because this is an epic fantasy story so it just HAS to have three books. Maybe I'll self-publish these stories one day. it sure is the most passionate I've ever been about something original i've ever written, but I want to make sure the entire rough draft of all three stories is done first so I can easily go back and add hints in previous parts without having to retcon anything later down the line. I've already had to do it once, so no doubt in my mind I'll have to do it again when I start trying to wrap things up in the final book. Speaking of the sequel, that was my nano project for this year! I won, but much like 2021 and 22, I didn't finish the book. my 21/22 project ended up being roughly 80k words, and I still expect to add about 10k more when I add some missing scenes and flesh out some description. I don't think that will happen with the second book. If anything, I expect it to barely stick around 50k in total because I just know I wrote a lot of filler and junk and repetitive stuff in the first draft this year because I was STRUGGLING with nanowrimo this year. Idk yet if I'm going to make a rewrite of book 2 my nano project for 2024. we'll have to wait and see how I'm feeling once september/october rolls around.

4. My fourth goal was to write 4 one-shots for my fic collection of Blankets, Socks, and Pillow Talk, over on AO3. I didn't do this, mostly because I was too distracted with my original fiction this year. i DID write one one-shot, hilariously during nanowrimo when I was suffering from writers block. Hopefully this year will be different. I would like this fic collection to at least hit 50k words so it could be a full novel of short stories all on its own. I think I can do it, I just need the time and inspiration.

5. My fifth goal, and last one I achieved this year was to finalize the details of the waterfall arc. I'm sure I've said it before in the past, but all the major story beats for Ghost Switch were planned out well before I even drew the first page, but the scenes connecting them were filled in more as I went. Rest assured, I make sure the entire arc is scripted before I start it, but my dirty little secret is that the snowdin arc wasn't completely written until I nearly finished drawing the ruins arc, and I was well into the snowdin arc before the final scenes of the waterfall arc were written down. It is now, and has been for at least 10 months. This was a goal I always knew I would achieve. Sometimes the resolutions I make are things I know are gonna happen whether I want them to or not. Sometimes you just gotta give yourself a guaranteed win to boost your self-confidence, you know? (now I just need to do the same for the Hotland arc. I think it's gonna take me 3 years minimum to finish waterfall, just like it did snowdin, so I got time, but the sooner I figure out the dialogue, the better. Will I make that a goal for this year? Ehh, probably not. I just wanna focus on building a buffer first)

6. The one secret goal was not achieved. If it was, this post wouldn't nearly be as long and you all would have heard about it as soon as it happened. Idk if it will happen this year, or anytime soon. A vicious combination of anxiety, the economy, and the uncertain state of the world make me hesitant to even attempt this goal.

aaand those were all my serious goals for this year! the time is now 10:37, I am tired and dizzy. I'm gonna save this as a draft and get back to it tomorrow~ nighty night~

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OKAY! IT'S JANUARY 3RD NOW, 8:34AM! LET"S CONTINUE!

my three casual goals, none of which I accomplished, were;

7) Finish writing clemency. While I didn't do this, I did think about the story a lot. If you've been around since late 2022, You'll know that when AI writing generators started gaining popularity, news broke that the internet was scraped for data sets, including fan fiction websites like AO3. This extremely pissed me off because Fan Fiction is... well, I guess there's no better word than "sacred" to me. The unadulterated desire to write, create, share and expand on media that has touched us, inspired us, (hell, even angered us!) and to do this all purely because we can and we want to, just to make connections with other people who were fans of the same media, people we may never meet, thousands of miles apart from us, who we can touch and inspire in turn... Fan fiction is a gift. it means so much to me, from the professional writer who writes ficlets as an exercise, to tweens just starting their creative writing journey by imagining themselves hanging out with their favorite characters, to the hobbyists who wanted to imagine how things would change if just one thing happened differently, to those who feel underrepresented in media, and want to see themselves be the hero. People working through shit, people who are just bored, people who love a story so much they will retell it a hundred times over so it never has to end. Young, old, girl, boy, fluent writers, to writers in fandom where english is not their first language. It's an amazing, nearly incomprehensible melting pot that can connect us all... and some CEO jerkoffs just wanted to steal all this heart-felt work and feed it to a machine to make a quick buck. I was so enraged, so violated that works of passion could be abused this way that I locked down all my fics on AO3, and you now need to be logged in to read any of them, and I didn't write a word of fan fic in over a year. Every time I thought my anger had cooled off, more news would come up about "AI" generated stories appearing in the kindle app, or authors having works published under their name without their consent because thieves are trying to make a quick buck with their identity to trick fans, or hear that tv show and movie writers being told they are worthless and replacable, and I would get mad all over again. I'm still mad just remembering it, and until actual laws are in place regarding the use of "AI" in art and writing, I'll stay mad, and my stories will be under lock and key. If some good has come out of it, I focused a lot more on original fiction this year, which I haven't shared online at all, so no fear of that being stolen, but I do miss writing fan fic more regularly, yet I can't stand the thought of something I make for fun being taken and used by someone else to line their pockets. It's like... the antithesis of the purpose of storytelling to begin with and makes me sick to my stomach.

WOW! That sure was a rant! Let's move on! My 8th goal and second casual one was to make a comic page buffer of 8 pages. I almost did this one! At one point, (like, the second week of december) I had a buffer of 5 pages because I was finishing up Memory 5 of ghost switch, but then I realized I could line up the end of the memory with the end of the year, and I ended up posting all of my reserve pages in, like, a week! During those weeks, though, instead of making more pages to keep the buffer supplied, I played a lot of video games instead, which I hadn't done since... october? because I didn't touch my PS4 at all during november while I was writing for nanowrimo, and I missed playing Horizon Foridden West and wanted to get back to it. Maybe this year, though? I'm dead set on trying to get to 312 pages before Ghost Switch's 6th birthday, which is, like, 30 pages away, so I gotta improve my output process regardless.

And the 9th goal of mine and the last of the casual ones, was to write that crack fic. This goal has been on my resolutions for a couple years now, but I still haven't done it. I'm gonna blame my AI hatred grudge for this, since it made me not to want to write any fan fic at all this year. I'll get to this someday, but maybe now I should put it on the back burner for some newer goals and projects~

Okay! The time is now 8:57! if you're still reading this stream-of-conscious ramble of mine, it's time for me to list off my goals for this year!

IN 2024 I WOULD LIKE TO...

Read 12 new books this year (one book a month)

Reach 312 pages of Ghost Switch by June 18th (the 6th birthday)

Build (and maintain!) a comic buffer of 8 pages

Go walking on 3 new greenways around my neighborhood

Go camping by myself

Make at least one new song comic

Finish 4 video games to as close to 100% as I can (currently looking at Horizon Forbidden West, the original Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Blue, Carto, Alba, Stray, Journey, Unraveled and The Talos Principle 2, as these games currently entice me the most, but I still want flexibility and options if one game ends up not clicking)

Finish the first rewrite of my 2023 nanoproject (this will probably end up being my nano24 project, if i'm being honest with myself)

Write 4 one-shots for BSapT

-- These 9 goals I want to be serious about, but like last year, I have some casual goals i want to do as well. They include...

10. Get reacquainted with Neocities and make a personal website

11. Learn to code to improve said website/learn to make games

12.Listen to the entire royalty free youtube library for reasons

13. Research every d.o.n.g. ever featured on VSauce, for neocities reasons.

I feel like I had a couple more off-handed things I wanted to do this year, but these 4 casual things are the only ones I can remember at the moment. Maybe I'll come back and add to this list later.

Alright! The time is now 9:37AM, and I have to go run some errands/do some house chores! Saving this again as a draft to come back to this later!

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Okay! Done with errands, and it is 11:30am on the nose! Time to resume my inane ramblings and hopefully finish this thing within the next two hours.

One thing I mentioned in my recap/review of 2022 was that I never actually felt like I was looking back on the year in depth. So much was forgotten or blurred together with other years because I didn't keep track of it. Well, this year I kept a monthly diary, again in my personal discord of 1, and wrote in it whenever I felt anything of note or significance happened to me, or whenever I had reoccurring thoughts or feelings. i managed to write in it at least once a month, often times twice, that being every two weeks. I found the whole experience quite therapeutic, frankly, and I'll share snippets of it now, though I will cut out the more personal entries. Be forwarned! A lot of the following text is straight up copied and pasted from my diary entries, so there is a lot of misspellings and short hand. I'll try to fix some of the more obvious ones, but these paragraphs are just as stream-of-concious writing as the rest of this massive post. Anything in parentheses with A/N is me adding context right now on the present day!

january 5th, two very close coworkers of mine quit due to upper management being petty. These two employees had worked here for nearly two decades. They were married to each other and were the mom and dad of the work base, with everyone else relying on them, looking up to them, and going to them for their problems. Them walking out scared everyone lower on the pecking order, because we felt that we were no longer protected from manager bullshit with them gone. I was off the day they walked out and didn't get to say goodbye. the grief I felt upon learning they left caused me to have my first ever anxiety attack that night. It was one of the worst experiences I've ever had in my life. I try to keep in touch, but we don't talk much due to our age gaps and busy work lives.

in January I also had a body-horror nightmare that still makes me squirm just thinking about it. I dreamt no one in the world wore pants, but we were all cool with it because we had pockets built into our legs. Not like... fabric sewn into skin, mind you, I mean naturally evolved extra flaps of flesh over our thighs like the pouch of a cartoon kangaroo. flesh pockets. even in my dream I could feel them. the insides were surprisingly dry and smooth- no sweat or hair in there, but the sensation was uncomfortably irritating, like when you rub your knuckles too much and it feels sore. worst part of this dream was, I woke up, thought "thank god I'll for get this in a few hours", but then watched cartoons later that day and saw a... tom and jerry(?) short where tom also had built in pockets on his body which made me remember everything, and now I can't forget.

February 8th. Watched The Flight if Dragons. Good, campy 80s feel. Drags in some parts, rushed in others. Some aspects feel like they have 0 explanation. (How did peter separate from gorbash? Did peter know that denouncing magic would vanish him from the safe haven? What happened to the princess's parents? EVERYTHING with the wolf and whatever was going on between the huntress and knight. I also Watched 1996 dragonheart. Slow start, but good fun. Pretty decent cgi. Acting is downright TERRIBLE in places, but it was good campy fantasy fun in the end.

On february 14th, I dreamed of a haunted house, but the house wasnt malicious. It felt like a friend that worried for your safety when you left, because it was rooted to the spot and could not come to you when you were in trouble. I did not stay long, and felt melancholic when I had to leave. Once outside, I turned around and said "goodbye house" and waved it farewell. Then, in all the curtains and windows, dozens and dozens of shadowy human arms waved goodbye to me in return, wishing me well and safe travels. It would miss me, but not keep me prisoner, because a house is only a home if you had the freedom to leave and return when you wished.

March 18. I got recommended a video on YouTube about screen savers, and it reminded me of one that our family computer had in the early 00s. After searching for a while, I rediscovered it; the createacard screensaver pack. So many buried memories unearthed. The sense of wanderlust and inspiration and not over such beautiful art came rushing back to me; https://youtu.be/zFPKmnegK0c

I was generally tired for all of march, not having much energy for any project outside of my comic, and even that was starting to wear me down.

I played a lot of kingdom hearts 1 in late February/early march. Synthesized the Ultima weapon for the first time. Cried farming sniper wilds and stealth soldiers because they unsettle me. I'm trying to grind to level 100 before the game is over. Debated on doing a kh song comic this year (A/N: This did not happen)

I want to redo my personal website. Wix added an image file size limit, and my whole site currently surpasses that twice over. The wix site editor is slow and finicky any way. Looked into blogspot and WordPress. I want to start a xenofiction book review podcast. Are solo podcasts popular? I Looked into neocities. Felt an overwhelming sense of nostalgia and child-like wonder. Made my own account/basic website, but haven't edited anything yet.

I got hit with the seasonal depression late February/early march, watched some home gardening videos on youtube and got inspired. The videos I watched were about people building actual massive scale pond and lakes, but I just went to home depot and Lowe's and Wal-Mart, bought, like, 12 different kinds of vegetable and flower seeds, 3 long rectangular planters and 2 massive bags of dirt. I also bought some peat seed starters, a plant heating pad (which I might just give to my cat) and a plant light. I spent over 150$ total.

My cat turned 5 years old on the 15th this march as well!

In late april I got really into analog/digital horror args and unfiction realities. Been watching a lot of Night Mind and similar analysis videos (I'm too lazy and dumb to try and solve them myself).

April 28th. Maternal grandfather might be passing soon. He's been in and out of hospitals since late January, needs around the clock assisted living, and my mom and her sister are constantly having to take time out of their lives to help him. I hate it. It's stressful and aggravating to mom, the assisted living people are incompetent, and my mom is stretching herself thin, running ragged trying to do everything at once. It's not fair to her. It's not fair to anyone.

May 11th. Mom's computer has a solitaire program with hundreds of versions of solitaire, most of which have gone unplayed. Ive been trying new games and learning them through trial and error (the "rules" tab doesnt work because it accesses a file that is no longer installed on this computer). Ive found new favorites in "twenty" and in "carpet". It makes life just a little bit more interesting.

June 4th. Been really into watching blind lets plays of undertale from 2022/3 lately, as well as dissection/discussion of undertale's music. Also into shayy's undertale mods. Glad the fandom is still having fun with this game. Got interested in pokemon infinite fusion. Downloaded it, but havent played yet. Getting back into PMD, though I have to grind now for leveling and evolving mons I cant recruit. Took a break from listening to librivox books, but might pick it up again. Same with checking in on flight rising. This year will be it's 10th birthday iirc

Looked at my ao3 recently and noticed I havent written anything in over 6 months. Still mad about the AI data scraping. I didn't stop writing entirely though. I spent all of October, November, January and February writing an original story, and still really proud/excited about it. Finished typing the rough draft on Wednesday, taking a break before I start edits.

All my flowers I planted in February are dying. Has a lot of rain this year. I think they're getting over watered.

June 6th. Been thinking a lot about Hawaii recently. I miss my old school and house. Went to Google earth to look at it again. I think our old neighborhood of [REDACTED] was razed and rebuilt becuase the streets dont look the same. This makes me feel… Not quite sad or bitter, but hurt none the less. I knew ever since we moved here chances of going back would be slim, but knowing my most nostalgic childhood home is gone forever…

Saturday June 17th fucking sucked for everyone. Two coworkers got seriously injured at work. My car battery completely died and couldn't be jump started. Had to call for a tow and wait 2+ hours for it to arrive. Wanted to cancel but they told me I would be charged even if the tow never arrived. Got charged 80 extra dollars for a "wench fee" I didn't need, but they talked to fast for me to think about it. Massive accident on the 4-lane highway home put all traffic down to 1 lane, and we were stuck there an extra hour. Dairy Queen's lobby closed early, going to drive through only, sonic was OUT OF ICE CREAM, and the local grocery store was almost sold out too. Did not get home until almost 10pm. Both my car AC and my mom's car a.c. don't work. I FUCKING LOVE OWNING A CAR. IT'S SO MUCH FUN AND SO FREEING.

June 28. Been playing a new video game recently; horizon forbidden west. Price dropped by 50% on Amazon and I had a 10$ gift card so I got the game for 1/3 the launch price. It's okay so far. Been slowly exploring and uncovering the map, ignoring the main story and discovering secrets. There is definitely A LOT more to do in this game than in the first. Dont really like a lot of Aloy's line deliveries. Some of the controls are different which throws me off. Robo enemies cool as ever, though noticeably fewer dinosaur ones.

Mom continues to take care of her dad. Aunt does too. All of mom's free time and energy this summer has been stolen by him. She keeps insisting she won't have to look after him as much when he gets better. I don't think he's ever getting better.

All my flowers I planted back in March have died. It's just too damn hot for them. It's too hot for everyone. We have just hit ten straight days with weather in the triple digits. I'm miserable.

Might have to replace my laptop soon. It's almost 12 years old, the battery doesn't work anymore, it overheats, and it's super slow. Looking into gaming laptops.

June 29; grandfather passed away last night. All I feel is relief.

July 11th. I got gifted my grandfather's bed, but had to switch it back out with my old bed because it was too soft and fucking up my back. No lumbar support.

July wrap up: month went by sooo fast I can hardly believe it. Its too fucking hot. Texas is stuck in a heat cyclone. Havent played solitare in a while, or listened to audio books. I managed to do 7 jigsaw puzzles this summer, and hope to do one more. each one has been 1000 pieces minimum, with two being 2000 pieces, and 1 being 3000. I should have taken more pictures of them finished, but it's fun to know we finished one puzzle per week this whole summer.

August 5th; Wish I recorded some smaller details throughout the year, not realizing id want to recall the last time I did something. When was the last time I intentionally watched a movie or listened to a specific song? (but then again, how will I know I'm going to think the exact thought; "when was the last time I did X specific thing?") I rewatched wolf children 2 months back for the first time in years, same with relistening to HeyHiHello songs. Been having a lot of lower back pain lately. Stretching helps, but I can no longer sit or sleep in my favorite position without cramping up. I need to be perfectly straight and i hate it. (A/N: The very next night I pulled a muscle in my back so bad I thought I was paralyzed. for the first time in years, I had to call in sick to work because I could not physically move from my bed)

August 19th. Went to a chiropractor. No pinched nerves or slipped disc, just a pulled muscle. Stretching helps and have been wearing a back brace. Finally had grandpa's memorial on the tenth. It was nice to learn he made friends at his community center. I'll try to be out going when I'm old too. Doctors would not sign his death certificate for 7 weeks because they just didn't give a shit, and we finally threatened to call a lawyer. He finally got cremated.

August 30th- recently had to go to pepboys to get my car fixed again. It was "stuck" in neutral. Grandma came and picked me up to let me go home. She said she doesnt plan to be driving much longer and intends to give her car to me. I dont know how to feel about this. Grateful for the future gift? Sad that she is getting older? I had to have my car towed and had to leave work early, which I hate doing because it makes me feel like I'm leaving everyone else to do my work, but I did not want another repeat with the towing situation that happened in june.

September 19th. I finally put on my brave face and ordered a new laptop for myself earlier this month (the 5th to be precise) and today it finally arrived. I bought myself an HP omen gaming laptop. It's so nice, but also different and a little scary trying to adjust to all this new interface. I went from using windows 7 for the last 11 years to jumping into windows 11. It'll be an adjustment. Gotta re-download all my old programs and transfer my files. Hope my drawing tablet will still work on this laptop. Might have to buy a new one of those as well. I already hate the subscription model being used if you want to do ANYTHING with the tech YOU BOUGHT nowadays. Goodbye microsoft office! It was fun while I knew you! I got libreoffice now! Fuck off adobe! OpenShot and Shotcut are my video editing programs now! I still need to learn my way around OBS, opentoonz, and pencil2d, but I gotta say there's something.... rustic? homey? about having a desktop full of opensource programs made by people who want to help other creatives free of charge. I miss the days where you buying something meant you own it forever, but free homegrown programs updated by community feels friendlier than just owning a shiny "offical" big named piece of software, I gotta admit.

The new laptop is wonderfully fast and silent. It cost me 2 grand so I hope it lasts just as long as my old one. There is no removable battery from what I can tell, which is sad. Also no disc drive. The keys light up rainbow which is cool (but I had to turn that feature off to improve battery life). I customized the desktop background to some concept art of the videogame RiME. (I thought I had saved the default bg pic from my old laptop to my external hard drive, but I guess I hadn't?) Funny to me that in the 10+ years of owning my second ever laptop, I never changed the wallpaper because I liked the default art so much. Might add more art to a file and have the wallpaper rotate. I want to replay RiME again too. Love the simple gameplay and strong colors of that game.

October 4th. So much has happened in 2 weeks, it feels much longer than that. I pretty much completely switched to using my new lap top ad my main computer, transferred all the files, downloaded a bunch of open source software for writing documents, video editing, streaming and animation. Fuck you Microsoft. I shouldn't need an account to use basic microsoft word. Hope to bring back page making streams next year for patrons~ ive even been playing some steam games that my old laptop just couldn't run, and quite a few new ones as well. Candleman, carto, so many fun and charming titles~ replaying snakebird because all my progress was lost 🥲I'm not mad. I love snake bird.

I have so much desire to do so many things, but not enough time to do them. I need to queue up my november posts for tumblr before I go on break. I need to get my oil changed soon. I want to go back on steam and play more humongous entertainment games. I want to write, I want to draw, I want to animate, I want to learn how to quilt and crochet and garden. I want to do it all right now all at the same time. I want to go on a nature walk. I want to see my friends.

Its finally starting to cool off. We still get in the 90s easily, but it rained last night for the first time in weeks, and we havent hit 100 degrees in a couple of days. Been reading a lot of webtoons lately. Been having the urge to start my own with my original storylines, or at least use webtoons as a backup/mirror for my fan comic. So many unique stories there all ready. So many fun art style and worlds to get lost in. I love stories and the people that tell them. The joy of creating a tale and sharing it with the world is humanity in its purest form.

November 1st: youtube is cracking down on adblockers. Havent had any problems yet on desktop, but on this day, my default youtube app on my lg smart phone started showing me ads for the first time in the 8+ years I've had it. I was so mad that i forced stopped the app, and logged into youtube through an ad block browser app instead. Some of the app's features will be missed, like being able to watch a video and search at the same time, but these little annoyances are nothing compared to the fury I felt at being shown ads. I didn't write nearly as much as I wanted to for nanowrimo today because of this.

November 6th: I turned 31! Both my friends forgot my birthday, and I wasn't able to reserve a camping site for the April 8th eclipse next year! 🙃 ive been writing like mad for nanowrimo, but I'm still falling behind.

December 17. Has it really been a whole month since i last made a diary update? Thanksgiving came and went. No drama at our house but my mom and I watched an argument unfold in the yard of our neighbors. The one mobile game I play, dragon's world, officially shut down for me 4 days ago. I'm a little sad I could never 100% it, but glad I got as far as I did, and even managed to buy some dergs so it didnt feel all my hard earned gems went to waste. Havent uninstalled the app yet out of nostalgia, even though I only played this game for a year and a half. I made the mistake of reinstalling the google play store to look for a new dragon raising game, but none had the same appeal, and the reinstall caused my discord app to update and hate it ):< I kinda want to learn how to make a mobile game of my own like dragons world, but with gryphons instead and a focus on rescue/rehabilitation and zoology angle. (I mostly just dont like how common fighting is in these kind of games.) Finally been playing horizon forbidden west after a few months away. I'm not progressing the story, just trying to max upgrade all my gear. It's a fun challenge~

December 26, 2023. Got bit by a dog at work on Christmas. Right on the nail of my middle finger. He broke my nail but not my skin. Its odd. Thankfully I can still draw without much issue. I got a tetanus shot and flu shot just to be safe. Mom got me a tent for Christmas because I plan to go camping by myself next year, even though I wont get to see the eclipse on my outing.

The fan game undertale yellow came out on the 9th… Which was before my last journal update? I've been enjoying the game play but the story is just a little... eh. the sprite work is phenominal, though, no complaints there. I hate that it's making me want to write my own AU version of it already to "improve" it, since I think the story loses its way pretty much once you leave the ruins. (maybe I can try to shove it into Clemency in stead since i still haven't finished that either).

I watched a documentary on kangaroos on netflix this month. I had to play it at 1.25 speed because I swear they slowed down every single clip for the film to get it to a certain length. I also watched "dog gone trouble" which had terrible voice work and awful character design, and then "back to the outback" which was surprisingly well made even if the characters stumbled sometimes, but I'd easily recommend it. I want to watch more Christmas movies before the year is through. (A/N: this also did not happen).

Finally uninstalled dragons world today. My phone's been acting up. Hope I don't have to replace it soon. I don't like how, nowadays, the technology I pay for, I don't actually own, and features are being removed left and right. I'm afraid any "new" phone on the market offered now won't nearly last as long as my current one has.

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Aaand that was a brief glimpse into my year! The time is now 1:10pm! I already have one other post going up today, so I'll queue this one to go up on thursday instead~ if you managed to read this far, thank you so much, i guess! I hope my ramblings don't make you see me differently as a person. It's odd reflecting on where I was in my life over these past 12 months, remembering my state of mind and the feelings I felt as I wrote these entries. I'll be sure to do it again this year.

Overall, did I learn anything?...no, I don't think so? I did come to the realization that at the end of every year, in multiple youtube videos and tumblr posts, people mentioned how hard the year was for them, but like... after june, for me, everything improved quite a lot. it doesn't feel right to say that 2023 was hard for me. It was unbearably sad for me at the beinging. annoying and (physcially) painful half way through, but once august hit... everything slowly started to get better, despite the small petty things I complained about in my journal entries above. youtube ads, car troubles and discontinued apps of games I enjoyed still feel like small potatoes when compared to what I accomplished. Finished writing a draft of personal fiction, finished a major arc of a fan comic, got a new laptop to stream and share art with others, played a bunch of new video games, and generally enjoyed life for the latter half of this year.

And it almost feels selfish to say that... I'm happy.

I hope I can stay happy in 2024 as well.

Thanks for reading~

Have a safe and joyous 2024~

[annislittleshopofhorrors]

The Chris-tmas calendar 🎅:

Door 1: Justin's puzzle 🧩

Door 2: a comedy door: DM blind 'he's gonna axe her' & 'stop hanging out with her clout chaser circle of friends' 🤣

Door 3: Justin joined the bucket hat club 🤠

Door 4: quietness 🤫 enjoy a calm Sunday

Door 5: While Justin is on vacation, we have our big cleaning day 🫧🧽

Door 6: Happy St. Nicholas Day and Happy Sinterklaas🎅 - the next pap walk was hinted, will be nice: beach walk in Lisbon or Puerto Rico ⛱️ and Chrissy boy just storied a dog at the beach (who cares about promoting Ghosted)

Door 7: Night shoot post. 🎄Chris finally remembered he has to promote his current work.

Door 8: *exhales* Chris' team restricted the comment section (no Alba or 👏🏻🫠). Troll in the dungeon: Justina didn't like his old tweets and liked a Twitter hate post (was quickly undone). 🧌

Door 9: pretty quiet day - some discussions about the Portuguese clout chasers and their racist tweets 🧟‍♀️

Door 10: a big door - a highlight of this calendar.😏 #Pantenegate: interior follow on IG, asking fan account to repost baby video, storied her soft porn application video and deactivated her account. 🍿🥂

Door 11: quiet day - only one article about a nice hacker who stole ABs nude vid. But don't get distracted and don't forget her racist, fatphobic nazi friends ⚠️

Door 12: Deja Vus day - articles about the "serious in love couple" (same narrative and words like 1 month ago) and Portuguese tabloids wrote about her nudes 🍒🍑

Door 13: the Nun is unemployed 🥷🤸🏻‍♀️

Door 14: Because we had too much fun with WN cancellation, an engagement rumor was sent to a hate account (of course from a local person)💍

Door 15: Keep (t)rollin', (t)rolling, (t)rolling...and back again to the beach walk. 'Rumors' say we will get pics on Dec 17/18th. Don't forget the sunscreen.🌴

Door 16: WN director also tries to profit from Chris. Let's hope this WN man won't leak his nudes, too. 🚫 The Russos had dinner in ATL and Wesley Kimmel got a CA shield for his birthday.

Door 17: Miss Nunemployment is back in Portugal. 🇵🇹

Door 18: quiet day - reblog of Ghosted teaser 👻

Door 19: quiet day 🤫

Door 20: Dodger content - what a lovely judging face 😍

Door 21: Happy Mother's Day 🌷Thank you Lisa, we love you! ❤️

Door 22: quiet day again 😴

Door 23: quiet day 😌

Door 24: Merry Christmas

Bonus:

Dec 27th - Justin trolled about skiing

Dec 28th - Director A. Fabian posted about Alba MHGTP and liked Pantene relevant comments (deleted later)

Dec 29th - Journalist tweeted about fake relationships and compared them with Chris and Alba

Jan 2nd - Jimmy Fallon compilation vid of Chris & Tara +Husband, Steve, Scott, Joana and Dustbin in VT & J+J IG story & Tara IG post &

Jan 3rd - JustJared poll about canceled show which should be saved & Joana IG story promo for upcoming movie

Jan 4th - Dustbin IG story: watching movie in economy class (deleted) and Fight Club soap + video of the 4 Portugrifters at the Lisbon airport

Jan 5th - Dustbin promo post (VT)

Jan 6th - Scott posted throwback of Vegas & Chris storied best of scares with Alba & followed by PeopleMag 1 hour later & JustJared & Yvette's supporting tweets & DailyMail article ("This fall")

Jan 7th - Buzzfeed IG post that Scott liked & Yvette's Twitter fight & Justin storied skiing videos

[sseraflix]

JANUARY 2023 ISSUE | SINGLES KOREA [YJ & KZH]

OFFSHOT / PREVIEW

official = web / pic 1 / pic 2 / pic 3 / pic 4

MAGAZINE SCANS

credits to @lovelygx9

INTERVIEW TRANSLATION

credits to @fimdungies (web)

just like the rainbow that appears from light passing through and bouncing from a jagged piece of glass, LE SSERAFIM’s Huh Yunjin and Kazuha grow stronger and more colorful from adopting the phrase “my wounds are a part of me”.

this is the first time you’ve had a pictorial photo shoot with just the two of you, without the other members.

Yunjin: when we finished shooting earlier and we were changing outfits together, I said that it was much more fun shooting like this compared to being by myself. it was especially hard to hold in my laughter when we had to do a pose where we had our eyes closed and had each other in a hug.

Kazuha: it was like a mother and her child cuddling, it felt so gentle and tender but I couldn’t stop myself laughing.

you first met with a video-call meeting. what was your first impression of each other?

Kazuha: I felt that there was a bright energy to her. I had a premonition that once I came to Korea and met her, we would be close within an instant. she was considerate enough to speak a little japanese with me since my Korean wasn’t good, so that was impressive.

Yunjin: Kazuha’s kind and good-natured character was able to seep and pass through the screen onto me.

the fans call the two of you “shinez”. many of them complement this duo/combination by saying “there’s something bizarre about shinez’s conversations, but they go back and forth really well.”

Yunjin:  in our self-made contents, we had a debate about whether the chicken came first or if the egg did, and at that time she said “the egg resembled the earth, so god gave love to that egg and the chicken was born.” and among other things, Kazuha often times says really impactful things through a few words. she really is an eccentric person, but that’s part of her charm.

Kazuha: unnie is really playful and we have really fun conversations. unnie can even make the mundane stories that other people talk about so much funnier.

Yunjin: when I make a joke and nobody else notices the punchline, Kazuha just laughs by herself. our humour codes match up well, so I make even more quick jokes.

you have the abs-sserafim nickname. all the members take working out seriously, but if you could rank yourselves what would it look like?

Yunjin: first, I’d like to declare Eunchae as 5th place.

Kazuha: I agree that Eunchae’s at the very bottom of the rankings. 4th place is Sakura unnie.

Yunjin: I think that Kazuha would be in first place, Chaewon unnie and I are pretty similar but all three of us like working out so deciding on the order is up for debate. but it’s a fact that the distance between 3rd place and 4th place is a big one. (laugh)

do the two, or rather the three of you, have fun working out together?

Kazuha: Yunjin unnie and I have received personal training together. I’ve also shared the abs home workout video I’ve used persistently by myself this whole time with the other members, but only the three of us do it constantly.

Yunjin: I’ve been using that routine to work out even before our “antifragile” comeback up until now.

you plan to release your first japanese single “fearless” in january, how do you feel?

Kazuha:  to promote in Japan where I grew up in makes me feel a little more comfortable but on the other hand, it makes me even more nervous since it’s a place I know very well.

Yunjin: it hasn’t even been a year since our debut and we’ve been given the opportunity to promote overseas so I have nothing else but gratefulness. I really want to do well.

of all the songs you’ve released up until now, what’s your favourite song from le sserafim?

Yunjin: I really like the song we followed up with after our promotions, “impurities”.

Kazuha: it’s the same for me.

personally, listening to “impurities” I thought that if unpleasant experiences like “impurities” infiltrated my life unexpectedly, than it could create a great synergy if it permeated and spread through my being.

Kazuha: I think similarly. for better or not, all the incidents I’ve gone through have gathered to complete who I am at this moment. thanks to that, whenever I have any hardships I think that there is a reason/meaning for everything, and within the process to overcome that I trust that I can grow to become a stronger person.

Yunjin: a short while ago, one fan asked me how I could be “antifragile” and I remember answering that I could be “antifragile” only when I’ve affirmed and acknowledged my “fragile” parts. the moment when you can accept the parts of yourself that you don’t want to see, you become more colorful.

I’m curious of the “catalyst for making me stronger and more colorful” you have when you face a tough situation.

Yunjin: the “opportunity” that will come to me to grow one step further is right here. it’s kind of like a life motto that I’ve been sitting and reflecting on since I was young, but as time has passed it’s an idea that I’ve grown more certain of.

Kazuha: I trust in my full potential and try everything that I can. after passing the audition, I came to Korea so I could join le sserafim and I was just in the position to start learning korean, it was a situation where I had to debut after going through just a short trainee period. because I had to catch up to the other members, I had to improve my skills in a short amount of time and a part of me felt anxious and uneasy. even though I practiced twice as much at that time, it was a great help that I wrote things like “even if I’m inexperienced and unskilled right now, I trust that if I just keep working hard with no stopping at some point I’ll be able to do well.” in my notebook to do some “mind control” on myself. among our songs, “good parts (when the quality is bad but I am)” has a similar theme to that and I often find myself reflecting on lyrics like it’s alright to make mistakes too / find the good parts.

does Yunjin have any lyrics she likes in particular?

Yunjin: I like the lyrics in “fearless” telling me to hide my desires, that’s weird / acting like I’m humble, that I won’t do. at first I thought “would it be okay for me to say something so strongly?” but as I sang that line over and over again I got more confident and I started to be more like what the lyrics were saying. I really felt like it was turning into my own story.

from your humour code, favourite song, attitude in dealing with your hardships and faults, there are quite a lot of things that you two have in common.

Yunjin: Kazuha is like a mirror of myself. especially with her dream of <becoming> an idol, and when she first came to korea it was like I was watching a part of me, I got excited. it made my original intention/determination even stronger

then what is Yunjin like to Kazuha?

Kazuha: uhm… a teacher that’s like my friend?

what does that mean?

Kazuha: although she’s an unnie to me, we’re close like friends and we have a close and comfortable relationship with each other but at the same time she’s like a teacher whom I have a lot to learn from. ♥

VIDEO / BEHIND

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