#but i think it looks good! and is significantly more in my budget than i expected

[leguin]

might be getting a bike! this week!

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Resubmitting because I think this got eaten by the inbox. Apologies if it was passed over intentionally!

🐝🐝🐝🐝 <- Bees of recognition!

WIBTA for moving out of my parents’ house?

I’ve [22NB] always had issues with my parents, and at this point in my life I am getting old enough (and exposed enough to outside ideas) that I think they may have been or are still somewhat mentally abusive. Regardless, I know and believe that they truly do love me and care about me very, very deeply. I know the way they treat me is flawed, but at their roots they genuinely care about me and believe they have good intentions.

Most recently, we’ve been talking about me wanting to move out. I will be graduating with my bachelor’s degree this semester and starting a one-year master’s degree program this fall. My parents have paid for my school expenses throughout my undergraduate degree. Regardless of whether I move out or stay with them, my parents will not be paying for my graduate degree. My partner [22M] of three and a half years is planning to propose to me soon and we are planning for me to move in with him this summer. I’ve done the math and extensively planned my budget to model my financial outlook. I am well within the range to safely give up my parents’ financial support and still have a significant “cushion” of savings built up. The model’s annual totals could be off by a few thousand dollars and still be safe and healthy for me to move out.

My parents are extremely opposed to this idea. I have talked about moving out before (as in over the past few years) and their main argument has always been that I wasn’t financially ready (they were correct at the time). This most recent discussion is different. They are incessant in telling me that if I do this, because my partner and I are not yet married, we will be “living in sin” and I should “consider the weight on your soul of throwing yourself away.” Dad especially argued it is his job to “use whatever I can to get you to make the right decision.” He said he will be looking into taking me off of their health insurance policy and that I would not be allowed to take any of my furniture that was previously promised to me for when I inevitably move out someday, and even insinuated I may not be able to take my clothes (essentially, any item they paid for). I did not tell them this, but even if he follows through on that, I am still financially able to move out. It would be significantly more difficult of course, but I could still do it safely. My mom seemed shocked and upset at him suggesting this so she may “talk him down” at some point, but it is unlikely to have an effect on the outcome. My parents follow a very traditional approach to the “family hierarchy,” in that Dad gets the final definitive vote on all family matters. His explanation he has repeated for years is he. “takes everyone’s thoughts and feelings into consideration, but [he gets] 51% of the vote.” Despite this, I highly suspect Dad was speaking before considering the impact of his “ideas” and it is unlikely he will follow through on them. Mom has mentioned that she and Dad want to meet with the local priest to discuss the situation. She says she hopes he can help Dad understand the balance between healthy guidance and severely damaging his relationship with me as parent and child.

I have tried to gently and calmly (but firmly) explain that I simply disagree that it is a morally incorrect decision to live together before marriage and that I don’t fully believe in the Catholic church. Dad almost completely ignored the statement saying, “Right, you can’t just throw your soul away. What if you move in and you’re living in sin, and something happens and you die? What then?” Mom just started crying. She was inconsolable until I walked my statement back to a matter of just “questioning” my faith rather than not aligning with Catholicism.

They offered to allow me to spend the night at my partner’s place once a week if I were to remain living with them through my graduate degree and/or until my partner and I are married, whichever comes latest. I asked if they were sure they would be comfortable with that situation. We have had arrangements similar to it before. Every time we have, it ended with them having grown resentful and that feeling festering until it exploded in a massive argument between all of us. They insisted it would be fine and that it was vastly preferable over me “fully committing to a life of sin.”

I still want to move out. For a whole host of other reasons too long for this already long submission, I feel it is not healthy for me to continue to stay with them longer than I already have. If I am financially unable to move out or it would otherwise be a bad idea logistically, I could handle another year. Staying longer would almost certainly affect my mental and emotional health but I understand you have to do what you have to do. I feel deeply, horribly guilty for wanting to do this despite their beliefs and advice. I feel like I would be hurting them so much and I don’t want to destroy our relationship.

So, WIBTA if I went against my parents’ wishes and moved out of their house to live with my partner?

[da-shrimping-station]

Cooking for the House of Lamentation

Let me start this post by saying that over the years I've had plenty of experience cooking for a lot of people. I'm no expert cook whatsoever, just a helping hand in the kitchen during festivals and occasions (which happens multiple times in a year). If you have more experience and insights, please feel free to share!

Let’s start this off by having some sort of baseline so we’re all on the same page.

MC /OC/you/us/we (and what have you) can:

follow a recipe well enough

be in the kitchen and not have it burn down

cook an edible meal at the end of it all

A fairly average cook if you will.

Now, time for chaos.

Cooking for a lot of people is…a lot. A feast for upwards of 10 people can take the whole day. Not to mention buying ingredients beforehand. How many dishes are you gonna cook? Do they go well/compliment each other? What’s the serving size? Are you gonna have desserts too? Do you have the right equipment? Are the ingredients available/accessible? Is there anyone who has a food-specific condition to look out for and make alternatives for? Are there ingredients that need to be marinated/prepped in advanced? Is everything within budget? (These are some questions at the top of my head)

Now the main concern here is volume/quantity. Beelzebub. Need I say more?

Actually, YES. It’s a house full of men. Men eat a lot. Oh, and they’re also demons. So let’s assume they eat/consume significantly more than humans. (You can pitch in your HCs for each brother regarding how much they eat) But let’s say the food has to be for 10-15 people at the very least.

GROCERY RUN!

There’s a whole ass booklet for the groceries, with each brother having their own page/section. Let’s assume there’s no budget constraints (Lucifer can bitch about the cost and budgeting but his brothers need to be fed). Groceries are bought in bulk. Multiple times a week. Emergency trips in the middle of the night or else they starve for breakfast. 

At some point they get their groceries delivered every 3 days or so. The runs are now for necessity/emergency.

But if a brother requests a certain dish, then it’s time to go to the market. Prepare your haggling skills.

THE BATTLEFIELD

Based off of the game (and referencing the floor plan from Wanderer’s Whereabouts), the kitchen is actually pretty spacious. Good. We need all the space we can get for this. I’d like to think Barbatos personally made sure the kitchen is fully kitted out with all the equipment and utensils one needs. (Thanks, Barbs. You’re the best!) No worries on that end.

I headcanon that the kitchen is split into 2 parts: the side where the stoves and appliances are and the side where the dirty kitchen is. That way you have access to stoves/ovens and the fancy appliances as well as being able to cook with coal or in a spit. Increases the capacity for cooking multiple dishes at once. (Please share your HCs for the kitchen!)

PREP TIME

Prepare your hands and arms. Washing, peeling, chopping, dicing, slicing, marinating. Any and every sort of ingredient prep. How many ingredients does this dish have? Are you gonna prep one dish only? Are you gonna prep for two in advance? Mis en place (or whatever the term is im no culinary shrimp)

Also think about the sheer amount of ingredients.

Say, according to the cookbook, this dish serves 5 people and it needs 1 whole onion. Pretty straight forward right? But you’re cooking for 7 demon brothers and one being the Avatar of Gluttony. Let’s go back to the 10-15 people approximation. That means you have to increase the amount (in this case that’ll be 2 or 3 whole onions). That goes for every fucking dish. 3 onions for dish #1. What about dish #2 and #3 and so on? (Honestly, your hands must be well marinated by the time you’re done with all the prep)

Measuring the ingredients too. 1 cup of this, a tablespoon of that, a pinch of this. Please please please let there be enough soy sauce for tonight’s cooking.

Another thing: you’re probably dealing with local Devildom ingredients (which you did not even know existed until then)

Veggies? Sliced

Meats? Washed and cut.

Condiments and seasonings? All measured.

Are we ready to cook? NO.

Please clean up the peels, excesses, undesirables, and packaging.

GET THE FIRE GOING

Finally! The actual cooking part! Take a deep breath and put that pot on the stove. Good luck cuz you’re gonna be juggling between multiple dishes just to be able to get ready for dinnertime.

One dish is boiling so the meat softens? Time to fry. Oh and have you checked the one you were marinating? Please add that to the veggies in dish #2. Don’t overcook the pasta for dish #1! Please adjust the heat, that pot is boiling over. Taste test for dish #3. Hhm needs more salt. Is the meat soft enough? Good, let's season it. Please mind the fire! You’re gonna char the one you’re frying. This one has marinated long enough, we can add it to dish #2. Take dish #1 off the heat. I think it’s done. Do you think this is fried well enough?

It’s hectic. It’s a mess and a half. You make sure nothing is overcooked or undercooked. Taste test to make sure everything tastes fine. (are the dishes safe for human consumption tho)

ALL DONE!(?)

You wish! Now you have to deal with the clean up!

Wash everything you used for cooking. Pots, pans, knives, measuring cups and spoons, plates and bowls you put the ingredients in, the tasting spoons you used, the ladles and spatulas, etc

Please clean the stoves, sinks, countertops/tabletops too.

Oh yea, put away the excess ingredients and return the condiments and seasonings.

You still there? Still got energy to study and do homework later?

Personally, i clean as i go whenever i have the time in between tending to the dishes. I hate hate hate a messy/dirty kitchen while i cook it makes me wanna rage

DINNERTIME

These fuckers better sit down and eat what you cooked. No. Who the fuck cares if someone is being rowdy or moody or being dramatic. NO ONE wastes your efforts in preparing the food. Sit down and EAT.

I mean alright, maybe you can tag team dinner prep but it’s still a lot in terms of quantity and sheer volume. Will that brother be of actual help in the kitchen?

To sum it all up,

May the Universe have mercy on MC when they’re on cooking duty.

[angelictearsshapedbytealeaves]

I’ve decided to review the first TGAA case. Because why not. Spoilers ahead if you haven’t played as well^^ as a newcomer to the series.

The first case in my opinion is a great tutorial for the game. Albeit with issues. A lot of good but the flaws it has prevent it from being truly great. Let’s begin with positives:

This game looks beautiful, is it a remastered 3DS game? Yes, but that doesn’t take away how stunning it all looks. The character models are well designed and brimming with personality, not only just that but the animations are spectacular. I have played games with a presumably higher budget and none come to how satisfying and smooth the animation is. I love how when Naruhodo slams his hands onto his desk and he for a second glances at them, it gives off a feeling of anxiety and fear so well. Alongside his eyes darting around the courtroom.

The gameplay is actually quite addictive, it’s a more subdued version of Danganronpa’s trials (have not played those but this is from speculation) yet it also feels very intense and gives me a dopamine rush the moment I point out a contradiction correctly. I even adore the fact you can investigate evidence further and it adds to the experience significantly.

The dialogue in this game is shockingly well translated and is full of charm and wit, Naruhodo, Kazuma, Jezaille and even the witnesses are plenty likable. I especially adore them all as characters and seeing Naruhodo grow more and more confident throughout the trial was so satisfying to see. Even if a dumb moment or two was here, overall it’s still very good quality. I also adore the little callback to Sherlock Holmes lore with Jezaille Brett’s name being a callback to the weapon that injured Dr. Watson in the Anglo-Afghan War (The Jezail) seeing as she killed him in this case. It’s a lovely reference honestly.

The music to this game is second to none, asides the Pursuit theme, my favorite track in this game is “Trial In Disorder”. The string section swelling up and it makes the atmosphere so much more oppressive in the courtroom. Especially as events transpires. This games music should not be at the high level of quality it actually is because the music in this game beats out a lot of soundtracks in games and its for a lawyer visual novel. (Track mentioned appears at end of post.)

Here are my negatives however:

The pacing in this case was so unbelievably slow, I don’t even think it was this long of a case but it felt like I was stuck playing it for two whole days, the amount of blatant in-court BS that happened to make this case go on longer (I get why it happened though, to show off how untouchable she seemingly was.) made it feel so much worse to go through.

Alongside the slow pacing I feel like a lot of the animations made it feel so slow, they’re all very well done and smooth but they also feel too drawn out at times and like the game was spending more time showing off the animations rather than allowing the case to flow by at a marginally better pace.

The entire steak segment and some of the testimonies should have been cut. A bunch of it really was pointless meandering.

Honestly not a bad tutorial. A 7.5/10. The very slow pacing and how stupid certain things were drag it down.

[deke-rivers-1957]

Kissin Cousins Review

After Viva Las Vegas went over budget, Colonel Parker as the technical advisor pushed the panic button. The next immediate film had its budget slashed and everything was rushed just to make back any money lost. The production was very cheap despite a somewhat ambitious story of having Elvis play 2 characters.

Despite being made after Viva Las Vegas, Kissin Cousins came out first making for a very jarring experience if seen back to back. A lot of people HATE this movie because of the concept and cheap production, indicating that Colonel's plan didn't work as he expected. After all, if you only spend a grand total of a $1 million dollars on a movie, you only need $1,000,001 to make a profit. Does Kissin Cousins have some good parts to it or is it all bad and should never be mentioned again? Let's find out.

Kissin Cousins is a pleasant opening song. It's not something that blows you away but it's a nice little ditty with cute art. It makes me wonder why we never had an animated film as those were usually way cheaper than a regular movie. Yes animation in the 60s wasn't as big of an industry as it is now, but if Colonel wanted to value cheap production, animation would've been the way to go.

We get introduced to the conflict of the movie: The military wants a military base on the Tatums mountain land in the Smokey Mountains. The Tatums don't want to sell as they don't trust the government. As stereotypical as this sounds, this was a pretty common experience. The only issue I have with this element is that they want to show this as the Air Force, but everyone is dressed in Army uniforms. Josh starts off wearing a more accurate uniform but we quickly do away with that. A sign already that no one cared enough to make things accurate.

We also see very quickly that this movie is so cheap they can't even film b-roll footage of the real Appalachian Mountains. Instead we get Southern California mountains and Hollywood sets. As much as it sounds like a nitpick, the mountains are a mega important part of the movie. Depicting the real mountains would add more immersion into the story by showcasing how these people live. Smokey Mountain Boy as a song doesn't stand out on its own. It does sound lovely in the context of the movie. It sounds like the type of song a military man would sing. We get a dumb joke about mountaineers not knowing how to spell and the girls not knowing what Jodie looks like. If you look very closely we get another sign that the movie is cheap in the form of a faint yellow line in the middle of the screen. That's meant to be the filter that allows Elvis to play both Josh and Josh at once. More on that later.

We find out that Jodie actually isn't their brother. He's a cousin too and my whole world just blew up. This whole time I thought they were all siblings because he lived with them like he's their brother. There's Gold in the Mountains is bad. The lip-synching is non-existent. It's very apparent that neither Azalea or Selena's actress are actually singing. They sound nothing like they're speaking voices. I don't think this song was really necessary and could've been cut if it wasn't for a quota. Ma calls Jodie her nephew and man I want to know this man's story. There's so many ways you can go about this and show how this could significantly impact his character and his decisions.

Pappy is an amazing character. Arthur O'Connell really shows his range as he sounds nothing like Pop Kwimper from Follow That Dream. Despite being the same character of the government disdaining patriarch on paper, you really get the idea that this is a completely different person. Pappy and Pop are similar but are not the same. What I don't like is that his clothes are seen as dirty and full of holes. Jodie and the sisters don't have that problem so unless Pappy just got done wrestling some pigs, this is purely for laughing at dirty uncivilized Southerners. While it is unfortunate that some of them lived that way, this isn't the Tatums' situation.

Ma's an amazing character too and it only highlights my point that she wouldn't accept anyone in the family to be walking around in unkempt clothing. She would've immediately patched up any holes she found. You get the idea that she isn't someone to push around. She respects Pappy's authority but she also has her own authority. Ma is willing to flip Jodie right on his butt if he disrespects her despite Jodie easily being bigger than her. In real life, an average sized woman being able to flip over what I consider to be a 200 lb man would be super impressive. We clearly get the idea that Pappy loves it. He wants his wife to be a strong woman who doesn't take disrespect from anyone.

This whole scene insults Southerners by having them own a Confederate Flag in the house, eat possums and other stereotypical "white trash" food like this is a regular occasion. Like it's something they take pride in eating and wouldn't want to eat anything else. Note: people only eat that when there's nothing else available. It would only make sense if they were proud of Ma being able to make do with what little they had but again this isn't what they're going through. They have pigs so it makes no sense why they still eat possums outside of stereotyping.

We get a visual gag of the captain turning green. This is such a cheap special effect. It looks like they just shined a green light over his face like we're in a cartoon. So bizarre and only exists because "haha isn't mountain food so disgusting." Totally unnecessary especially with how long they drag the joke of no one knowing what an ICBM is. In real life, if this family was as ignorant as the movie makes them out to be, they would not survive.

One Boy, Two Little Girls is a very boring ballad. It adds nothing to the movie and is just filler. We already got a song with him singing to the sisters and learn nothing new. You can just cut to Josh talking to Azalea and Selena about how to convince Pappy. This whole interaction between Josh with Azalea and Selena is weird. We're supposed to think he digs both of them.

Catchin On Fast which is just as shallow. The song itself isn't bad, but in the context of the movie it comes out of nowhere. Josh just randomly picks Azalea over Selena. Yes we get the drama that Selena has to get married first, but outside of that there's no reason for him to pick Azalea. Yes it could be a matter of Josh preferring brunettes but it's never established to be the reason why he likes Azalea more. Admittedly I love that Selena isn't jealous of Azalea or mad that Josh picked her sister over her. In a different Elvis movie we know that would've been a conflict that lasted throughout the whole movie.

We get introduced to Midge and Jodie completely looks smitten. This is a completely different side of him. It's implied that he's had relations with more than one Kittyhawk woman but becomes such a different man around Midge. In that moment, none of the other women matter anymore. Midge is the only woman on his mind and you have to wonder what about her captures his attention. Maybe it's because she's not immediately throwing herself at him or seems interested in him at all. Just by this scene alone, Midge does not give a single care that he's staring at her. If anything she straights up ignores him after they're introduced.

Watching Azalea interact with the Kittyhawks when they give them their own bikinis is the only difference we get. Azalea actively stands up to them and puts them in their place. She doesn't tolerate their actions. Ma puts her foot down when she sees that this turned everything upside down and I can understand where she's coming from. If Azalea and Selena are disrespecting her and the Kittyhawks are causing nothing but trouble, of course she would be upset.

The reporter exposes their plan to get the mountain base and the plan is all coming apart when the general contacts the captain about going up to the mountain. The captain orders Midge to go to Ma and try to smooth things over. Despite this being the 60s, the captain treats Midge like any other subordinate. He's not overly harsh or lenient with her just because she's a woman. Now that's gender equality. She runs into Jodie and at first we think Jodie's going to act like a pig and a wolf. And he does act like that, but what makes this movie better than most is that he gets his comeuppance. Yes it's meant to be a source of comedy but given the 60s, Midge being allowed to push back against horny men is incredible. She grins and bears it when it's the other military men because a lot of them may outrank her and pushing back would be horrific. But since Jodie has no authority over her, she pushes back. In other movies Jodie would be a creep who escalates his advancements after every rejection. But he doesn't. He saw the look on Midge's face when she thought he got hurt. She doesn't actually hate him, she just hates how forward and physical he is.

Based on their social situations, you can clearly see how it influences these women's reactions to male attention. Midge is just so used to men seeing her for her body and nothing else that when in a situation where she can push back against that behavior she will do it, while the Kittyhawks hardly ever see men so any attention or interaction with men would be like giving kids candy after denying them that for so long. And whether he fully realizes it or not, Jodie has to acknowledge that Midge really isn't like other girls but her own person. So he changes his approach to serenading Midge with Tender Feeling. Easily the best song in the movie and actually adds depth to Jodie's character. Even though he's a cocky jock, this song actually matters by showing that he's capable of being more than that. It still fails but even when it fails the only thing on Jodie's mind isn't a notch on his bed post it's WEDDING BELLS. He had full choice of any Kittyhawk out there to marry. He could've married any one of them at any time. But he doesn't want to be with any of them. He wants Midge. You can make an argument that as soon as he saw Midge for the first time, he wanted to marry her. Unbelieveable how this side character in a cheap Elvis production actually has some type of character arc.

Meanwhile, Azalea tries to convince Ma about changing her mind. I know the movie wants to make us feel bad about it, but we don't have any reason to feel bad. I don't feel anything for this relationship. Outside of Josh being different than the other mountain men, there's no real reason for her to like him. I care more about Hezekiah missing Pappy and he's a dog.

So they go to find Pappy and all of the men except for the captain and Jodie get captured by the Kittyhawk women. For once an Elvis character doesn't like being appreciated by multiple women. I guess it's meant to show how Josh is more "civilized" than Jodie. We get another Joe Esposito appearance in this movie and he actually gets a line.

Ma actually gets a song lamenting the loss of her husband. Pappy, Won't You Please Come Home is actually a pretty appropriate song. It shows just how much she loves him. The vocals could be better but it doesn't have to be professional because within the context of the movie, Ma isn't a professional singer. Pitch doesn't matter when you're sad.

We find out Pappy got chased by a bear and got stuck in a tree. The wide shot of him being stuck in a tree is so bad. You can tell this is a stunt double since Arthur O'Connell is too old to be doing stuff like this. Even when you can see his face you can tell he's only dangling on a wire and it's not even clear how he's caught. I get we needed something to get Josh on the family's good side but they could've done this a bit better. You would think this would be when Josh and Jodie would have to work together to save Pappy, but I guess that would've just been too hard to film. Again if Jodie had a real character arc this would be the moment when he realizes "hey Josh just isn't doing this because he's told to. He genuinely cares about us. He acts like he's kin."

We get a good old fashioned hoedown and hi where did all these people come from? Up until now we've had the Tatums and the Kittyhawks as the only people who live on this mountain. So why is there a whole village of people here? It completely changes the Kittyhawk women's reason to exist. If you imply that there's literally no other man on this mountain outside of Jodie, then these women being boy crazy make perfect sense. Now that we know Jodie isn't the only young man, they just look like a stereotype that women are promiscuous.

Barefoot Ballad fits so well with Jodie's character but watch out foot phobic people because it's exactly as it says on the tin. The dancing however, isn't that great. It shows just how rushed this movie's production wise. I guess it could work in that in universe these aren't professionals but as a movie it could be better. This is where the song quota kicks in as we get yet another song in the span of not even five minutes. Once Is Enough is fine but it's still filler. The dancing is still bad as one of them actually falls down and it stayed in the final cut. Based on Pappy's little speech I would've thought he would start singing. Heck even the captain who would later play Grandpa Joe showed he could sing in Willy Wonka so it's not like we couldn't have had a Pappy song.

After all this time, Jodie finally gets a character moment where he warms up to Josh. While Jodie internally realizes that Josh was alright when he saved Pappy, this would've been the perfect moment to showcase that he's willing to compliment Josh. If only he had more of a role in the movie because what little we get shows a pretty engaging character arc. Midge coming around would've been a natural reason for him to warm up to city folk. I could make a whole post about how I would write his character since there's so much potential.

The Kittyhawk women actually play an important role by sending the general in circles. That's what makes this movie great. Everyone has a part to play even if they start off as a joke. Pappy gets in a drinking contest with the captain. I have to laugh that Jodie managed to snap Pappy's suspenders when Pappy tries to run away. It actually adds to Jodie's claim that he's the champion and therefore strongest man in the mountains. Ma makes it clear that they have to talk things over so Josh and Pappy try to make a deal over a game of checkers. Jodie actually tries to help Josh out by getting the captain sober. If only they took advantage of them looking alike and had Jodie disguise himself as Josh. Jodie would have to swallow his pride because he knows if this deal fails, he would lose Midge as she's a WAC.

It isn't until Josh comes up with a deal allowing Pappy to continue selling his moonshine without "revenoor" interference. They also get protection and $1000 a month for the land. The deal goes through and everyone ends up happy. The one thing I wish was better explained is how despite all these people being on the mountain, Pappy is somehow the leader. I think if we had so much as a line about how these people came from distant villages would be enough as it's not like the military intended on buying the entire mountain.

Kissin Cousins (Number 2) is a banger of a song and I really like Jodie's twang when he sings but wow the production is cheap. They don't even bother cropping the shot above where you can actually see Lance LeGault (Elvis' body double) in the background. This isn't the first nor only time either. Throughout the movie and during the song when they switch back and forth between Josh and Jodie, we can see his face by accident. Elizabeth Montgomery in Bewitched had to do something similar when she had to play Samantha and her identical cousin Serena. That episode came out in 1966 and managed to do a better job. A TV show somehow did the same concept better than an actual Hollywood produced film. It's so sad that production was rushed to the point of basic editing mistakes and mistakes in general are left in. Even the ending where the characters hold up "The End" signs feels like this is a cheap high school production instead of a Hollywood movie.

This movie has several problems. As I've said the production is cheap with songs that are nothing but filler and at times have noticeable mistakes, Josh is a very boring character with an uninteresting romance in Azalea, Jodie makes you wonder why they wanted Elvis to play two characters when one of them doesn't even do that much, and they outright insult Southerners by using very cliched stereotypes.

So why do I like this movie in spite of these problems? Because the story has enough good elements that you can actually fix the problems without having to completely change the movie. It's like a Clambake in that I would consider the highlights to be enough to cover the glaring errors in it. If this movie had a different production team or a better budget I would say this story is one of the better ones for an Elvis movie. Therefore I would give this movie a 7/10. This is a movie that best exemplifies how Colonel's interference directly hurt a movie that otherwise would've been great. I highly recommend watching it so you get the perspective of how poorly Hollywood thought of Southerners, yet still have the Tatum family feel like real people.

AN: Shout out to the discord besties for providing commentary about how the Tatum family showcased the bad light Hollywood painted the South in. Especially @grizelda71-blog. Your notes in particular helped me see both the good and the bad in this movie. Also shout out to @smokeymountainboy for your work as Jodie inspiring me to review this movie this month.

Tagging: @arrolyn1114, @thedaisymaisy, @that-hotdog, @peaceloveelvis, @imaginationlast, @fuzzymusic94, @helen06dreamer, @sfull12345, @briefpandatimemachine, @alittlemoreelvis, @lynettethemadscientist, @motht-eeth, @ash-omalley, @spooky-hazex, @teamnefarious, @blighted-star, @ab4eva, @oh-my-front-door, @father-of-2cats, @atleastpleasetelephone, @xanatenshi, @crazymadpassionatelove, @burnthheparaphilia, @aliengoth3 @stormie-ryan23, @yksuwyksud, @tacozebra051, @alienelvisobsession, @vintageoldsoul, @ohmygiddd, @lovininapinkcadillac, @stephthestallion, @mistyspresley, @bisexualwvtson, @ahundredlifetime, @karel-in-wonderland, @elvispresleywife, @georgefairbrother, @moonchild-daniella, @musiclover712, @worldofyns, @sillybookmarks, @g00d2balive, @leighpc, @generoustreemystic, @peskybedtime, @thetaoofzoe, @renegadewarrior, @vintagepresley, @tupelomiss, @myradiaz, @pinkcaddyconfessions, @kiankiwi, @presley72elvis, @delulubutidontcare, @januarypresley1969, @livelaughelvis, @hooked-on-elvis, @slayingjd, @ilivebecauseiamforced, @dusintv, @cattcb, @eapep, @jaqueline19997, @richardslady121, @iloveelvis2, @lett-them-eatt-cake, @if-i-can-dream-of-elvis, and @lookingforrainbows.

[blazehedgehog]

What are your thoughts on the Sonic OVA in terms of style? From the animation to music, is it a good, fitting style for Sonic in your opinion?

I remember it clearly: a friend gave me $50 for Christmas in 1999 or 2000. I bought the Sonic Adventure soundtrack (an EverAnime bootleg, which means basically as good as the real thing to everyone except collectors, and less than half the price as the real thing) and the Sonic OVA on VHS, with the white cassette.

I remember watching it and being... kind of underwhelmed? Here was a Sonic anime, where my primary points of comparison were, like, immaculate masterpieces of theatrical anime. Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Vampire Hunter D, even something like Fatal Fury the Movie or Roujin-Z. And especially, but not limited to, the Sonic CD intro.

The Sonic OVA was significantly lower budget than all of those. It looked more like a serialized TV series or something. So it kind of disappointed me.

In the years since then, I have come around on it. It's definitely up there in terms of my ideal representations of the character: sort of lazy, kind of a jerk, and only really helps when it becomes absolutely clear that he's the only one that can do it. Like, the opening is clear enough: Tails begs Sonic to help him save someone, Sonic refuses, and Tails almost literally kills himself trying to do it alone -- until Sonic steps in at the last second and rescues everyone, barely breaking a sweat. Character established.

The music is great. I'm very thankful of Mr. Kingalicious's recreation soundtrack, and I love that some demo tapes were uncovered of the official soundtrack. And, I mean, Look-a-Like is an all-timer.

Generally I think it's great these days. The only thing I don't really like is Serah, who only seems to exist to look cute and scream. I'm sure some people dig that (in particular some anime fans), but you wouldn't lose much if she was taken out of the movie.

It's a shame it's apparently locked in licensing hell -- there have been rumors that the music was preventing its re-release, and a recent story suggests Sega straight up lost the documentation to the ADV dub. So it sounds like it's almost completely untouchable.

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Back to the 70's 1995 Soul / Disco / Glam Rock / Pop / R&B

Well, folks, it looks like the prolifically cheap and scammy ways of the dubiously iconic K-tel label were not just confined to the US, because here they are with a pretty disappointing look back at some 70s hits for the UK market too. If you ever thought that K-tel's hoodwinking style of loading up their releases with combinations of significantly inferior re-recordings and low-quality originals was some sort of uniquely American success story of budget-mass-produced capitalistic shoddiness, you'd be wrong, because apparently Brits have been forced to navigate this gambit of theirs too.

But at least credit where credit's due: K-tel did not mail in this selection here. They may have chosen awful versions of songs for the most part for this CD, but damnit, those awful versions were of hits that were actually big in the UK; and a whole lot of them weren't very successful Stateside, either.

So if you, for whatever reason, ever want to subject yourself to K-tel's deceitfulness, but you want to do it more Britishly, here's a comp with a bunch of weak re-renderings of authentic soul, disco, and glam rock hits that were popular across the pond in the 70s. Most disappointing moment here for me personally was not being able to learn how they attempted to replicate the iconic echo-popping wood block sound from the bridge of disco diva-porn star Andrea True's "More More More" that later went on to seed the success of Canadian 90s one-hit wonder alt-rap group Len's "Steal My Sunshine." The jaunty keys from that bridge that Len used are there, but the wood block piece is just skipped over entirely in this rendition. Very tragic 😔.

But not all of this is a total waste, though. Sonically, the original hit version of Barry Blue's "Do You Wanna Dance" may sound like it was captured with a discount store cassette recorder here, but it's still a fun and clap-happy piece of catchy party-time glam rock; and The Peppers' "Pepper Box" is a silly wad of French instrumental disco bubblegum with quirkily squealing p-funky synths on it, and I think it's something that could've maybe served amply as a theme song for some sort of British Soul Train equivalent; also not a re-recording.

So, once again, overall, a really bad product from K-tel, but still a couple decent glints on it. My suggestion to you is that if you want a good, eclectic dose of the 70s UK pop music landscape, seek out the original versions of all these hits instead.

P.S.: The version of "Do You Wanna Dance" that I'm posting here sounds a lot better than the one that was used for this CD. It's essentially the same version of the song—i.e. not a re-recording—but it's just of a higher sonic quality 👍.

Highlights:

Barry Blue - "Do You Wanna Dance" The Peppers - "Pepper Box"

[destinyc1020]

Do you think the bikeriders will do well in the box office (the budget is 40 million)? I’m thinking this is the movie that would show that Austin has some box office draw (his star power has grown significantly over the past couple years). But I’m looking at my cinema to book tickets on opening night and nothing is sold so far. It might be a walk up heavy movie but I thought this would be a bit more buzzy idk. I hope it does well anyways. I think Austin is one of the biggest stars today but like it seems audiences really don’t be showing up even though they support people online.

With "The Bikeriders" I am not really expecting it to be this huge box office draw tbh. It's a smaller indie film/passion project of Jeff's, and while it does have a few big names in it, it definitely seems like a niche type film that people will probably check out mainly if they have an interest in motorcycles or in the actors in the film. For some reason, I thought that Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy were the leads in this film, but you might be right...Austin has been doing the bulk of the promoting, so this might be more his film. I know Tom has been busy filming ("Venom 3" I think?) so he hasn't been able to be on the press tour circuit as much, and Jodie is still sort of relatively unknown so I'm sure they're putting Austin front and center to be the one promoting since his name/fame is bigger than hers.

I guess we'll see how it does Anon! 😊

I know I was worried too Anon when "Challengers" was coming out. I had bought my tickets days in advance and I was the only one reserved in the theater lol. Then, by the time Friday/Saturday rolled around, a BUNCH of people bought tickets and it was almost a full theater. "Challengers" ended up making it's budget and then some! 😊

So, Idk...sometimes people are just late to buying tickets. Also, some people might be waiting to hear from others how good the movie is FIRST before they buy tickets.

It's only Wednesday... I'd wait to see what things look like on Friday perhaps? I see quite a few people have already bought their tickets at theaters in my area. So it might vary by location. 🤷🏾‍♀️

[gremoria411]

Alright, given that I haven’t rewatched Gundam Narrative yet, let’s talk about something I did watch this week.

*Spoilers ahead*

Mobile Suit Gundam Twilight Axis: Red Blur, an 26 minute ova which adds new scenes to the original Twilight Axis, making it actually coherent in the process. The plot of Gundam Twilight Axis concerns three main characters:

Mehmet Merca - Earth Federation special forces commander, who’s been tasked to investigate the remains of the Axis Asteroid base to recover any evidence of psycho-frame or other newtype weaponry. IE the wreckage of the Sazabi. Despite what you may think, he’s actually a very nice and reasonable guy.

Arlette Almage - Formerly Char’s personal mobile suit mechanic throughout the One Year War and Char’s Counterattack (Second Neo Zeon War), though she did not join him in the AEUG. Also a Newtype from the Flanagan Institute (though apparently not a patch on Lahlah, the star pupil of the Flanagan Institute). Char personally handpicked her from Zeon’s Flanagan Institute when she was a young girl, so she views him as something approaching a father figure (honestly it’s a little unclear). This translates to her wanting to know what happened to him, which is the reason she helps Mehmet Merca to help navigate Axis.

Danton Hyleg - Formerly Char’s personal test pilot. Happily retired with Arlette, and is mostly along to support her. As he’s significantly older than her (at least ten years), he has a more realistic view of Char, outright telling him around the time of CCA it would’ve been better if he hadn’t come back to them. A very good pilot, but unable to actually pull the trigger and kill someone.

Overall, I’d say it’s pretty good, it does just enough with the time it’s got for you to be invested in these characters, and it’s got some good action scenes. It can’t disguise the fact that it’s got a very low budget (there’s a lot of scenes where you can’t see people’s faces, so they don’t have to animate lip movements), but it knows where to prioritise. I do like how even though it’s technically a set up for a later antagonist, it keeps focus on the actual characters first. Twilight Axis was originally a light novel and was adapted into an OVA and Manga. I have read a translation of the Light Novel and found it very good, since it fleshes out a lot of stuff missing from the OVA (IE Birnam’s motivations), to the point where I could honestly consider twilight axis a very good advert for it. The Manga adaptation, which I haven’t read, also looks very good. I’m given to understand that Arlette and Danton also cameo in MSV-R: the Return of Johnny Ridden, which is neat. The reason I’m pairing it with Narrative is that I view them both in similar lights - after unicorn showed off how utterly ridiculous psycho-frames can be in the right hands, we’re left with the question of what happens between now and F91 onwards for it never to be used or spoken of again. Both Narrative and Twilight Axis deal with the fallout of Psycho-frame mobile suits such that we can understand why it was sealed away and not further developed. Or, as I like to think of them, they’re curatorial works, made to answer some lingering questions.

However, I have two main non-ms design criticisms of the story - The First, and most forgivable, is that we’re not really given any information on the enemy pilots, the Fermo Brothers. I’m more forgiving of this because I think the manga fleshed them out more, and you don’t really need that much information. The Second criticism is both petty and bothersome to me, because it’s entirely likely it’s borne from my own assumptions. The Flanagan Institute, where Char headhunts Arlette, is shown to be performing inhumane experiments on children, with one of the bosses explicitly mentioning “disposal”. What bothers me about this is that to my knowledge this is basically the only piece of evidence that ever shows the Flanagan Institute to be abusive. Why does that matter? Because central to Zeon’s stated philosophy is that of the newtype, a new type of human adapted for space with the ability to sense, communicate and emphasise with others over long distances. The Federations’ refusal to recognise the newtype is synonymous to their refusal to recognise the autonomy of the colonies. The Federation refuses to recognise the capacity of mankind to evolve past it’s need for the Earth, since (as many characters are fond of saying) their souls are still bound down by gravity. So the revelation that the Flanagan institute, Zeon’s shining beacon of Newtype advancement, needed to resort to the mass death of children for its newtypes just completely undermines that. We know newtypes can naturally awaken in combat, but nowhere is it suggested that they *need* to, with both Challia Bull and Paptimus Scirocco basically just showing up, with no indication of harrowing battles beforehand. Furthermore, it also completely undercuts another notable organisation in Gundam, the Titans, who actually do resort to the kind of inhumane practices shown here. Why? Because they view Newtypes as nothing more than weapons, further demonstrating their utter contempt for spacenoids, having twisted one of the central facets of spacenoid independence into just another tool of oppression, with all the dehumanisation that implies. But if they’re just following off Zeon’s playbook for the “production” of newtypes, then it implies that newtypes aren’t actually a development for humanity at all, simply a reaction to large-scale trauma. I know Victory and other later UC shows went back on the Newtype philosophy a bit, but they (Zeon) knew from essentially day one that it wasn’t it? It just throws into question why a lot of the success stories of the Flanagan institute would even stay with Zeon, if that’s how they were treated (and it turns newtypes into the whole “super soldiers through trauma” thing, which…. I see a lot in fiction, and I bothers me a little that this is the route they decided to go for).

But enough quibbling about a whole 14 seconds of animation, what do I think of the mobile suit designs? These are arranged favourite to least favourite (though to be honest I’m not particularly crazy about most of the offerings here), and do not include the R-Jarja (I’ll cover it if I ever talk about Neo Zeon/Axis Zeon or the Gyan). Given that most of these suits are variations, I’ll typically discuss my feelings on their original counterparts as well. I’m using the Novel Artwork, since I generally prefer it (and image limits), but this applies to both versions of the designs.

First up, the AMX-011S Zaku III Custom. Straight-up my favourite mobile suit here (though that doesn’t mean a whole lot….) I like the Zaku III because it’s chunky, well armed and proof that even Neo Zeon is not immune to nostalgia. True, it gets outclassed during the First Neo Zeon War by all the 4th-Gen mobile suits running around, but it’s still a very solid design. I like how the Zaku II-to-Hizack-to-Zaku III-to Geara Doga-to-Geara Zulu line plays out too, with each one having slightly different characteristics. I have a very mixed views on Char’s custom mobile suits - which I like, because I enjoy judging the suits mostly on their own merits, rather than on who’s piloting them (key word being “mostly”). That said, occasionally one of Char’s suits can end up being a really baller design, which I just adore. Sadly, the Zaku III Custom shown here is not one such design, though I do like the idea of Char Piloting a Zaku III for whatever reason, hence it’s inclusion here. It’s actually quite nice, since it’s a relic of Char that the two characters attach value to, a momento of their time together, that nonetheless must be left behind on Axis. Just like Char.

Note: GB02’s decision to spit out a Byarlant Isolde at me is essentially the reason for this entire post, since I was forced to actually formulate an opinion on the blasted thing, having been utterly apathetic towards it until now.

The Original Byarlant is a suit I’ve gone back-and-forth on over time, disliking to tolerating to (generally) liking. It’s got a very unique silhouette to it, and I like how it essentially ended up a high-mobility suit with so much of its body devoted to thrust, and you can believe it’s high mobility, since it’s so many thrusters that can move and swivel to precisely direct the suit where it needs to go. The head’s pretty gorgeous and I like how inhuman it is, along with the Byarlants hands and feet. It’s got a very minimalist armament - just two beam sabers and beam guns (strong beam guns, mind), but I find this only adds to its sleek feel. It looks like someone wanted a war machine that was also a race car. The colours are both villainous, appropriate for a Titans machine, and eye-catching, with the yellow drawing your eye to the face, and the red highlighting either thrusters or limbs, again emphasising it’s mobility. I do like how the feet look both delicate and weighty at the same time - they’re both designed for high speed and yet don’t look like they’d struggle to hold up the suit itself.

The Byarlant Isolde takes several features from the later Byarlant Custom - chiefly the shoulder thrusters and back fuel tanks, creating the sense that Birnam was able to get their hands on some new parts, but not enough to fully upgrade the Byarlant. I will say that I absolutely adore the new colour scheme - I didn’t expect to like a lilac and white mobile suit this much, but somehow the Isolde makes it all work. I should note that the Byarlant is similarly outdated to the rest of the mobile suits present, however, The Titans and Neo Zeon didn’t have that much of a tech gap, chiefly since Neo Zeon declared war basically right after the Titans defeat. They undoubtedly had an edge in Newtype weaponry and heavily armed mobile suits, but from a practical standpoint, a high performance suit from the latter days of the Gryps War is probably going to stand a better chance than a Grunt unit from the Neo Zeon war. The Byarlant was always a fast suit, so this makes even more sense. This is why it slightly baffles me that the Tristan is considered Birnam’s best unit, but I’ll talk more about that later. Though I do like the original Byarlant’s head, I find the Isolde’s Gundam-style head to be growing on me. It’s likely a more advanced head than the original Byarlant, and likely better suited for its environment of a dense asteroid base (in UC, Monoeyes tend to be better at range, whereas Twin-eyes are better in close quarters (it’s to do with target tracking at differing ranges), though it’s not a large enough difference for it to get called out). It was likely also chosen for the lingering psychological effects it may have on any former Zeon or Neo-Zeon personnel they might run into while investigating axis - appropriate, since the Titans also dabbled in that. I will say that the new head gives the Isolde and absolutely wonderful silhouette - the sunken red-on-white eyes make it look very imposing and it reminds me of some of the head designs from Gundam Sentinel (the geometric nature of its V-fin also helps with the intimidation factor in my opinion, though I’m not really certain why).

The Ahava Azieru is a weird one. I know basically nothing about the design or it’s origin, and even it’s general form is unclear. It’s a mobile armour that I can only assume is patterned after the Neue Ziel, but when I first read the novel, I assumed it was some sort of prototype to the Alpha Azieru, so I’ve no idea what it could be a derivative of. It’s very well armed, and it seems to have at least some common design features of Late-UC Mobile Armours. I do like how it can essentially afford to sit back and throw beams at its opponents, but it seems remarkably slow for a MA (though that could be down to the pilot). It seems to have the design of a dragon, with its large winglike shields and funnel tail, which is an odd decision, since it’s ally, the R-Jarja is mentioned multiple times as being a “Knight”, an enemy of a dragon. Yet Arlette uses it to communicate with the enemy pilot, so they don’t come into conflict? It’s an odd thing. I do very much love the head (perhaps I have a thing for inhuman head designs in Gundam, though it’s awkward to see in relation to the rest of it).

The Jegan (Birnam Type). It’s a purple Jegan with a custom visor and rifle, used by Birnam. While it’s nice that it’s giving us a preview of what the Crossbone Vanguard’s suits will eventually look like (it’s rifle resembles a shot lancer somewhat), it honestly doesn’t do anything. It could have been replaced with any other grunt suit and it would have been the same (I’ve gone off the Jegan’s design a touch as of late, so forgive me if I’ve little to say on this one).

Finally, the Gundam AN-01 “Tristan” (typically just called the Tristan) and Kurwenal. Since the Kurwenal is an add-on to the Tristan, I figured I’d cover them together. This is also because although the Kurwenal is my least favourite design, I have more to say on the Tristan itself. I find the Kurwenal to just be boring honestly. It’s a bunch of missiles and Newtype tech bolted to the Tristan, relying on overwhelming firepower as opposed to anything else. I don’t like it’s colour scheme or it’s form at all, it feels too much like a toy with its blue and red colours and blocky psycommu claws. While it’s 5-tube beam pods make for a good visual, I can’t really appreciate them because they’re just a box that shoots scattering beams. There’s no design or artistry to them like there is with funnels, those agile and adaptable little attack drones. Lastly, when it gets broken up the Tristan just sits there. I’m not saying I expected it to leap out and continue the fight, it just looked so very goofy that I couldn’t take it seriously as a weapon. Onto the actual Tristan then. The novel art does help it a little but……. It’s just so boring. It’s the NT-1 Alex repaired with parts that make it look more like the MK-II. Performance-wise, the Byarlant Isolde was probably better-performing than it. It looks very generic, especially when compared to other Gundam-type mobile suits. Part of it might be that it exists at a time when 4th-Gen MS are all the range, while it’s only a 2nd gen at best. But the way it’s presented as Birnam’s big trump card is just silly when it’s roughly two wars out of date. It almost got taken out immediately by the Zaku III custom and only survived because the pilot couldn’t pull the trigger. I guess it’s supposed to represent the Gundam’s legacy in the same way that the Zaku represents Char’s legacy? But it’s basically the only Gundam that neither Char or Amuro had anything to do with, so that line of thinking falls a bit flat. It’s just overall dull.

Oddly so, even, because despite it changing very little, I find that I prefer its predecessor, the Gundam NT-1 “Alex” considerably. Part of it might be the older style of design, the well-defined place that the Alex has - it’s a nice piece of Late-OYW design, being cutting-edge and (spec-wise) able to give pretty much anything of the same time period a run for it’s money in the right hands. It feels like something between the RX-78 and the Gundam Development Project (Gp01, etc) and I like how elegant it feels, without losing any of that all-important weight. It feels like a space-specialist Gundam, counterbalancing the Gundam Ground Types from 08th MS team, with its extra ambac thrusters, compact and powerful backpack and general blue colourscheme. It’s well-used, since it shows the Federation moving to capitalise on their strengths and how desperate Zeon is at that stage of the war to stop things getting any worse. It also further demonstrates the massive power disparity between a Gundam and many of Zeon’s mobile suits, only being destroyed through great sacrifice and luck. That might just be it, the Tristan has too many recycled elements for me to look at it as it’s own thing, and it’s missing all those finer details from the Alex, so it just looks lesser by comparison. It’s little more than a charismatic grunt, compared to the absolute terrifying monster that was the Alex.

[alcego]

Words Written: 2,082 words Projects:

Commission - Slow going. Moved it back into GDocs so I can write at work. I think the format is what's throwing me the most - it's not a style I usually work in and I am in a touch over my head. It's fully planned and otherwise moving along well.

REDO-REPEAT - Wrote this AFTG fic on a whim, chasing motivation-inspiration to get the gears oiled up. It's not everything the idea could be, but I'm happy with what it is given why I wrote it. Not everything needs to be perfect lol. You can read it here, but do mind the tags.

Original Work - Haven't spent much time on my original work, although I do have an idea percolating in the back of my head that I should probably rough out soon. I have a couple other shorts that need to be re-drafted, but I think I need more space from them before I get going again.

Notes:

Wasn't feeling great this week for a variety of reasons. I'm trying to catch back up on life after my second ever kidney infection (caught it early enough this time that my suffering was significantly easier to deal with), not to mention worrying and checking in on Winnie daily now that she's due to foal any day now. (Most likely she has a week or two left. However, sometimes they progress very quickly, so it's prudent to be watchful.) There are other things going on beyond that, of course, but suffice it to say I've been overwhelmed and that is not conducive to writing for me.

Have been consistently frustrated that I don't have a good "writing nook", which has been doubly frustrating because I have several places from which to work, but none of them have been facilitating Getting Things Done. This is a problem for writing but it's equally troubling on my WFH days. Lately I've been most productive in bed. I do not like this, as my bed is supposed to be for sleeping only. Have been looking into purchasing a used chair/ottoman for writing purposes, but there are a lot of logistics to consider there.

In a similar note to the above, I'm irritated by the size of my MacBook. It's a 13", which I ordered during the pandemic and decided it was "good enough" upon realizing it was smaller than expected. I no longer think this, as the keyboard is cramped and the screen doesn't have as much space as I'd like. I've considered going back to my old 17" Dell, which I wrote on prior to purchasing this laptop, but that laptop has fallen victim to planned obsolescence and is unable to receive the updates it needs to function at the level I require. I've looked into larger MacBooks (for budgeting purposes, mostly, although I wonder if I could trade-in my old laptops and have enough store credit for a used one?) but so far as I can tell the keyboard does NOT scale, which is irritating, as I'd prefer one with slightly larger keys so I stop stumbling over how close everything is. The other option is go back to Windows, but this is problematic as I very much prefer the iCloud files syncing to access my WIPs from my phone. Basically: no good solutions. I'll have to keep looking, which is fine, because I don't have the budget to get anything yet.

Not sure how to tie this in, as I suspect it's related to most, if not all, of my whining, but I've been noticing yet again that I have more "luck" writing analog than I do when I'm working on my phone or laptop. That makes it harder to track what I've written, but it's functional, and has gotten me through several sticking points.

Not sure what I'm going to work on after this commission is complete. I think, tentatively, that I might finish a JereJean PWP that has been on the backburner for a while, then finish roughing out my ex-mixtape fic (I got sick and ran out of time, so dropped the event) before polishing it for posting. After that, I want to revisit Vestigial, which has been shelved for a while. I'm hoping that if I get back in the groove of finishing stories, I'll be in a better headspace to get back to my original work, but we'll see. Nothing's set in stone just yet, and my writing stamina isn't high enough yet that I can just bust through any of these without long term repercussions. Slow and steady is key for a bit.

[the-celestial-bitch]

Hey! I saw your tags in my post. Just curious about why you can't trust the Chinese government? What did they do to you?

Hello! ill try to give a comprehensive answer, but i apologize in advance if it feels like rambling and my sources are weird, bc im mostly used to following politics in my own language.

that being said, I'd like to first clarify that my apprehension and distrust in chinese government is different from the anti-chinese propaganda currently happening in america. from what ive seen, the fear of chinese government meddling in us politics and economy is fearmongering for the sake of increasing the military budget. china wouldnt start a war like this. china would, instead, join a war in middle east.

first id like to point out that im iranian, and so ill be talking about chinese government in relation to iran. i know some stuff about other countries, but ill leave the matter to people who know it better than me.

china has been known to sell arms to iranian military and aid them in using new technologies in war. this might seem like a positive matter to a leftist westerner at first glance, bc they are doing it under the guise of helping middle easterners defend themselves against us military's invasive actions, but in reality its not a good thing for several reasons—most obvious of them all: giving the military even more power will only lead to more tension in the region. currently most of the fights in middle east are bc of the sunni/shia dispute. on one hand, you have saudi arabia, advocating sunni, and on the other hand, iran is the one advocating shia. shia is significantly less popular than sunni, but iran has its way of appealing to marginalized shia groups in sunni-majority countries. bc of the iran-saudi proxy conflicts, and the power-hungry governments, saudi arabia and iran have been at war, but not in their own countries—in other countries such as syria, iraq, lebanon, etc. for more information on this, you can check out this source. china has sold arms to both saudi arabia, and iran, for many years. they have, indirectly, added fuel to the flame of wars happening here. (sources: 1, 2). china has also been helping iran in developing nuclear weapons (source), despite it being a bad idea (for obvious reasons, i dont think i need to explain why giving nuclear weapons to governments are bad. but if ur wondering just look at us government and the bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki).

i think i should point out a certain hypocrisy, and that is the issue of the genocide of the Uyghurs. if you dont know what exactly is happening, its basically like holocaust, with concentration camps, taking the children away from the families, and persecuting people for their religion and their race. for more on the matter, check this and this, but be warned, its pretty brutal. youd think that, considering that the current tension in the middle east is bc each branch of islam deems itself the true salvation of all muslims, their collective silence on this is deafening. yet its not really silence, is it? they have publicly defended chinese governments horrendous inhumane actions, as u can see it reported here. the real reason behind it is bc the chinese government has been supporting and aiding many of the governments who have yet to speak against the genocide happening right now. again, iranian government claims itself to be the true leader of the muslims, so why are they covering their eyes when they see uyghurs who have no one stand up for them?

thats bc the chinese government also does the same for these countries! for example, i dont know if you know about the protests happening in iran since last september. an innocent girl was murdered by the morality police, and since then hundreds have been murdered, thousands have been captured without even knowing where they are being kept, tortured, raped, abused. aside from that, the internet connection has been limited, often cutting off entirely when a huge protest has been happening. chinese government has not only aided iran in suppressing the protesters by granting them weapons and the technology of controlling the internet (for real, google is on safe-lock unless we use vpns. we cant use twitter, tiktok, instagram, whatsapp, twitch, and we dont have access to many websites such as bbc news, iran international, etc. they have also been controlling the vpns, killing them one after another. you'd be lucky if a vpn works for more than a month for you, and i cant stress this enough: u cant do anything without the vpns. its just the hell we're living in), they have also publicly defended irans rights to oppress the people, saying that the UN shouldnt interfere with a countrys affairs. (source) dont get me wrong, i dont believe that any of the western countries are trying to help us for the good of their hearts or whatever—they just want to omit a rival from the board, thats all. but siding with the oppressors leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, especially since i know they have also been brutally oppressing their own protesters, as we saw in the hong kong protests a few years ago.

aside from that our country has basically signed a contract with china that literally sells our everything to china to get arms and stuff (heres the whole contract shared in a propaganda website run by the iranian government and heres the wikipedia page for it breaking it down).

tldr: the chinese government has been actively aiding iran in the recent murdering of the protestors, and also the fact that they have been an indirect benefiting factor in the various middle eastern wars makes me suspicious of the sudden peacemaker mask theyre putting on.

[razorsadness]

"I believe in desperate acts, the kind that make me look" Both ways when crossing my fingers behind my back in the street where the traffic's terrific, and I'm making a promise that I know I won't keep to talk with you soon about Kant's metaphysics One reason after another in a multitude of classic styles and miasmic colors Stop and go emergencies for any occasion and every budget Vroom vroom vroom See ya later, alligator All I want's to write more poems to be a good husband and a father and a teacher This lecture brought to you by anxiety over an interview Heading home from my current position/employ I think about the people warm and sleepy in their houses The icicles dragging all our gutters to the meadows Snow or linoleum Is anybody happy Is anybody torn in the talons of an eagle, a red-tailed hawk through the eyes of a storm And if anybody is, then can anybody fix it Is anybody willing The situation's lonely and I'm already forty Weirdly, the whole world's right here with me Right here beside me, but nobody's home I walk to the store for a twelve pack of something, or light bulbs or toilet paper, coffee for the morning Orange marmalade, English muffins tonight we'll think our faces off, and then I'll do some sleeping Longer than I can remember I've wanted to amount to more than me, significantly and anxiously, and not to be a negative and not to wear a mask This message directly to you is a plea to hear back YOUR message— any message you want To hear you in my headdress To see you on my doorstep 3127 Manning Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45211 And when I pull your strings, you can set me on fire And when the Jawbreaker's finished, you can put on my shirt We'll blow each other's covers then we'll walk the red carpet into the rapture we will dance on the escarpment our arrival a surge of inter-mangled re-connection

—Matt Hart, from Sermons and Lectures Both Blank and Relentless (Typecast Publishing, 2012)

[fitgothgirl]

I feel like my blog is becoming more so random stuff than fitness/health stuff. I used to try to keep it strictly about health, but in recent years I’ve let it get some random stuff in. It partially started because when I say “health,” I include mental health stuff in that, and basically everything about life can affect mental health lol. Plus just all the fun/weird/interesting stuff you want to reblog just to reblog. And I’m not against all that for my blog but it’s just gotten a wee bit too much for what I want here. So I’m going to try to rein the randomness in a little, and/or try to have more health/fitness stuff in between.

This may include a few more body posts, but I’ll start tagging those with “body” for anyone who wants to block it. For me, it’s not that I want my body to look exactly like someone else’s, it’s just the image of health/strength that’s motivating- someone else being (or at least appearing) their healthiest/strongest makes me want to be my best, whatever that may be. But of course grain of salt with all that - someone’s body doesn’t tell you their health or happiness.

Been so blah since vacation. I’ve also been having insomnia problems as I mentioned a few days ago and it’s taking some effort to get back to normal. But just got wrung out from the lake house overall - I’m not 21 anymore, as they say. But after that vacation and also feeling crappy most of June, I really want to get some healthy habits going again. I went for a walk on Friday evening at least, which was very pleasant and refreshing. I’m still feeling blah today but at this point I know I need movement more than rest. (And caffeine would help too...)

-

I’ve been thinking about money stuff lately too. Of course I need to budget better and control my spending better and all that, but I’ve also been thinking about how I eventually just need to make more money... Even if I wasn’t in debt, I don’t think I can chill around this wage for too much longer if I want to ever be able to retire or just live comfortably. I’m painfully paycheck-to-paycheck right now (hence the ever increasing debt). So last night I was starting to look into what path I could go down next in life where I could make a good 50-75% more at least (and obviously something I enjoy doing for the most part). Right now I proofread medico-legal reports, but I don’t think I want to get into editing, and there’s not really any sort of growth here. I was looking into medical coding and healthcare data analysis and even healthcare recruiting. I feel like these things have too much dealing with other people though lmao. 😂 I really just want to be left alone, by both any sort of customer/patient and other employees. I know I can’t have it super easy though if I want a decent pay bump.

I feel like whatever I land on, if it’s significantly more money then it’s probably going to take at least some sort of certificate program before I can pursue it, if not a master’s... We’ll see about the master’s though lol. Obviously this is a big decision and needs to be thought through. It’s funny though, I got my bachelor’s 6 years ago and was so done with school at that time lol. When I was asked by others about a master’s or whatever, I was like “I can’t speak for the more distant future, but for now, NO MORE SCHOOL.” And here I am, over half a decade later, where I would consider “the more distant future” to be in that regard. Time is crazy...

Obviously I want to stop making my debt worse and *gasp* even get out of debt eventually. But the stuff I would do after that is even more important and has been getting to me lately. Like at this point, I feel like I’m holding my bf back from travelling. He makes decent money and can budget himself unlike me, so it’s always been a thing about whenever I could plan to get together the money for anything. And I recently realized that after over 11 years together, we’ve haven’t done any of the travelling we want to do (as in like, more than a road trip or a quick flight to SoCal or something lol). And I can’t make any of the more “adult” purchases, like I’m sure I won’t be able to drive the same car forever... Or even fun purchases that you think DINKs can make, like my bf and I have always really wanted a hot tub and even somehow have the perfect spot for it in our small backyard haha. But the DINK lifestyle is only as good as the couple’s earning/spending habits allow. (I don’t even put purchasing a house on this list since that’s just laughable no matter what for me IMO.)

Aight I’m going to cut off the money rambles. 🙃

[veebs-hates-video-games]

Time for another installment of a couple games that irritated me and a couple that are good actually. Or maybe it's the first installment of that? I'm not keeping track.

Ori and the Blind Forest went on sale incredibly cheap, and I had been meaning to try it out for a while, so I finally did. It looks great, it sounds great, and I was enjoying the exploration part of it, but the combat is meh at best. I could've gotten over that probably, but the checkpoint system where you have to manually make your own if you ever want to save just does not work for me. I'm either going to forget to make one forever because ADHD and then lose half an hour of progress or waste resources making them way too often, or what actually ended up happening was saving in a room with only one exit that was full of things that could kill me with a single hit, having to retry several times before finally making it through, and then just giving up when the next room needed some annoying timing for stuff and not wanting to reload over and over some more.

Shovel Knight also went on sale incredibly cheap, this time on the 3DS, which I didn't even know it existed on. I was Concerned because I've bounced off so many Critically Acclaimed 2D platformers and metroidvanias lately (aside from Ori there's also been stuff like Celeste and Hollow Knight and something else I'm forgetting), but it turns out it's great and I genuinely enjoy playing it. I'm not super far in it because I keep getting distracted by other stuff, but so far it's a lot of fun and clearly made by people who are intimately familiar with NES-era platformers and what made them look and feel the way they did...which everyone already knew several years ago, but I just got around to it now.

Diablo 3 is...frustrating in a way that is itself also frustrating. As someone who's spent over 2000 hours on Grim Dawn over the past several years, it's safe to say I can get really into ARPGs when they click for me, and people have been comparing Grim Dawn, Diablo 3, and Path of Exile for years. The general consensus I've picked up is that Diablo 3 has waaay less depth and build variety than the other two, but people seem to think it has the most polished gameplay. After playing it a bit I'm not sure why they think that, because it doesn't feel like a revolutionary new level of polish, just like Torchlight 2.5 if Runic had a bigger budget to work with. It does do some things well, but as someone who's never really liked any of the Diablo games, the baggage this carries with it from trying to be a followup to Diablo 2 is ultimately going to be what makes me stop playing, possibly very soon. I could go on at great length about every little thing that's annoyed me while playing (and I have on Discord), but the short version is that I understand why there are people who like it while also being completely unable to myself. I may complain in greater detail later (or just copy stuff from Discord with light editing), but for now I'll just leave it at this.

Diablo 2: Resurrected will be a very brief entry. It was significantly cheaper to get D3 bundled with D2R than it was to get D3 by itself, so I seem to have ended up with both. I was expecting to play it for a few hours and be reminded of why I kind of hated it when I was younger, but it was not to be. The opening cutscene is genuinely great and reminded me of why Blizzard used to be known for having particularly high quality pre-rendered cutscenes, but as soon as it got to the main menu it shat itself repeatedly and failed to connect to Battle.net. Which it needs to do to play offline. On the Switch. Well, at least I got a discount on D3 for failing to play D2R, and as a bonus I got to watch a good cutscene for a few minutes. And now I get to have that 8 GB of space on my SD card back.

Vampire Survivors gets to show up in another post, so that's nice. I'd been taking a break from it for a couple months, but this week I got inspired to go back and finish up some of the stuff I didn't do before. Still such a great game. I'm about 80% done now, and I keep finding new silly things I didn't expect or coming up with increasingly broken and/or nonsensical build ideas I haven't tried before. It's not always the kind of thing I'm in the mood for, but when it is it does what it does so well.

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (Steckler, 1964)

Probably the most remarkable thing about this movie is that it was shot by Joseph V. Mascelli, Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond. Now, I suspect this won’t rank near the top of the filmographies of the latter two gents, who are considered some of the greatest cinematographers ever, but I do think the movie is pretty nicely shot. When I was binging Ray Dennis Steckler’s work last year, I ended up holding off on this one as I couldn’t find a good looking copy. Now, I just had my Severin Steckler box set come in the mail, with the magnets, the stickers (why does Severin keep sending me stickers? not complaining, just asking), the one-sheet signed by Carolyn Brandt, but not the Steckler mask (I was very tempted, but couldn’t find a good justification for getting the mask, especially as that set was significantly more expensive; yes, I decided to be financially responsible just this once), and I decided to pop this in. I’m glad I waited. The transfer looks beautiful, and the darker colours have an inky richness to them, and the brighter ones really pop. But in this nicer copy, it’s probably easier to appreciate some of the compositions here, like the framing of the actors’ silhouettes on the beach, and the shadows during the horror scenes, and the dazzling musical numbers.

This is a horror movie directed by Ray Dennis Steckler, meaning that it’s not too heavy on the horror. What we get here instead is lots and lots of carnival footage in lieu of the thrills and chills one might expect in a horror movie. But unlike his later slashers where the relentless padding reeks of a certain desperation to get his movie up to feature length, the footage here has a certain joy of discovery and an appealing time capsule quality. (I know I just complained about carnival footage padding in The Funhouse, but maybe I’m warming up to that one too. Anyway, consistency is for suckers.) We don’t just see characters walking by the roller coaster, we actually get on it ourselves. There are also a ton of song and dance numbers, which feel like Steckler doing MGM on a budget. Probably not the best musical numbers you’ve ever seen, but they’re executed with a surprising level of commitment, and are distinct and fun enough that I had a good time. The most fun one is “A-Shook Out of Shape”, a jaunty rock’n’roll song about...let’s see, being beaten by your mother for staying out late. And there’s a number with a gladiator costume where the dancers get attacked by the mixed-up zombies of the film’s title, and it takes the audience a second to realize that it ain’t part of the act.

Steckler himself plays a character who can be described as “willfully unemployed”. Actually, that’s probably inaccurate, as unemployment numbers only include those who consider themselves part of the labour force and Steckler here very much does not. (Glad I could finally use that bit of knowledge for something. Who says higher education doesn’t have its merits?) Steckler goes with his buddy and girlfriend (who clearly use different hair products than he does, consider his hair has no volume and theirs seem to stand up several stories high) to the carnival, gets hypnotized and starts killing people whenever he sees a spiral (one of his victims foolishly twirls an umbrella before her demise). These murder scenes are executed with lots of handheld camerawork and draped in shadows, which was likely to suggest more explicit violence than could be shown, but helps give them a certain charge, as they break from the bright candy-coated aesthetic of the surrounding film. Of course, one of his victims is an alcoholic dancer played by his wife at the time Carolyn Brandt, who is always a delight to hang out with. I understand Steckler was an admirer of Jean-Luc Godard, and I wonder if he ever compared his movies with Brandt to Godard’s with Anna Karina. Would this be his A Woman is a Woman? Is Blood Shack his Pierrot Le Fou? Is The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher his Made in USA? Or maybe it’s Body Fever and you shuffle the timeline around? Steckler and Brandt continued working together after their divorce, which you gotta respect.

So no, this isn’t a great horror movie, but it’s always (okay, not always, have you seen his pornos? yeesh) fun to spend time with Uncle Ray and friends.

[xian-1502]

In a planning stage in my life and man every single time, that voice in my head telling me it’s all way bigger than me is so loud. The self doubt in me wants to comply in all regards, but i know it’s possible and also what i need to do if i want to live how i want, where i want, and around who i want. Currently looking at career certifications and the research necessary for all the exams, helpful and affordable financial investing, car maintenance and certification, budgeting reanalysis, and part time/swing shift job availability. There’s still other stuff unmentioned but it’s just more in the expected plate of being a person in the today of now and all.

Jumping off from that point, a more personal look at the on what’s in frame, i’ve been looking to get into new hobbies and rediscovering roots in old ones since life has become a bit dull lately. Along with that looking to take advantage of 10 free sessions my mom’s job offers from shared health insurance. Aside from the prior related reasons, i just also think it’s a really important step i need to take on understanding myself and being the most acclimated for the world and interacting healthily with the people around me. Hoping for the best with that.

Been swinging a lot more mood wise too, towards the melancholy unfortunately. It doesn’t stick but it’s become inignorably apparent. I think it’s just a combination of doing everything at once making me more emotionally volatile but i’ve come a lot closer to crying and feeling tears welling up in the past 2 weeks more than i ever have and it’s been really weird feeling. Along with distinct and palpable feelings or yearning which are never fun, but i so my best to take my mind off it.

Today was also just really weird. I’ve been looking into getting my national certification to work as a pharmacy technician since it just seems like an airtight good idea all around. Since the job is not only significantly more than any wage ive ever had (living wage arguably) but its also in an environment conducive to somewhere i’d want to be on my career route. Along with that a great failsafe if i have a terrible burnout and need a stable income to sustain myself. Regardless i was looking into potential bill free routes into completing an eligible course for the PTCE and my aunt had advertised (literally the DAY before) that i can maybe take advantage of courses on an online course module service that she gets through work. Yet today out of nowhere i ask if i need to make my own account to get my name on the certificate that i would get for completing any modules she offered, and it somehow flipped into a weird scenario where i was being told it’s a bad, irresponsible, plan and then hit with gaslighting attempts to make me believe that was never the intention of what was said. which is when she literally was enforcing over and over “you have to think things through” or “you need to ask yourself this important question” and being met with responses proving the contrary and then she just goes “we’ll anyway it’s not like i’m telling you not or it’s a terrible idea” please be serious 😭. Regardless of that near 3 hour long rehash of berating, nonsense, and gaslighting i ended up doing a 45 second search and finding out a prospect she tried to pressure me on that i brought up was true to what i said and she was just bullshitting so at that rate it’s clear it came from personal bias since she really would prefer i go into developing skills for project management (me, project manager. Be so fucking for real) . which is like neat and all i get it, it’s her deal, my great aunt’s deal (she got my GA into it) and her daughter as well. And maybe i’m fleecing but the way what seems like a feasible skill/cert to head towards for my own sake is being shot down and ridiculed in favor of using project managing software and other remote/office jobby stuff really feels like she’s trying to funnel me into that same slope. To no avail, but it just makes me curious why in her eyes it’s so unwise and irresponsible to research and look into pharmacy technician certification job route but an indisputably worthwhile endeavor to only focus on team/project managing work and actively improving my skill set to get remote service jobs. Like it really just seems like i’m being suggestively stonewalled to build up another “scrum master” or whatever redundant professional sounding business synonyms they use to talk about being a team coordinator .

To conclude, i’ll end on some better updates and such. I’m getting into the habit of doing daily origami which is pretty neat. I wanna get through this whole stack of kali paper but my issue is likely gonna be storing it all so i’ll probably have to give some away or do modular stuff over several days to save space. I’m also hoping to repair my bike since i’ve done a proper inspection and know what and how i should fix with it. As well tire replacement ideas for better ride comfort on different terrains. Having a bike again would be really nice and after not thinking about it so long i realize i actually do miss the breeze of it. Finally i’ve been reading the disappearing soon and learning a lot more about the stories of chemistry and it’s been pretty interesting since i really doubt i’d pick up on this info from anywhere else. Definitely a nice pick up since i just happen to carry it with me everywhere so i can get a quick snippet between classes brakes or appropriate waiting periods.

Final note: Starting to understand stuffed animal gifts on a fundamental level

Love and miss you more everyday sunshine 😞