#i also bought square-shaped ones

[wintersearose]

[2024skin]

Mom called me a shitty roommate today bc after months of her telling me to rent a uhaul (too young to do so) and then flaking out on me whenever I asked her if we could it on x day, I gave up on trying to get my bf's heavy TV and dresser and ordered a mountable tv, instead of buying more storage totes so that I could add to the ever increasing stack of totes in our guest bedroom

[ishipmyotp]

I have had 2 different wrist support mouse pads that aren’t booby ones that I got off amazon and they are very much gel filled. I imagine the squishiness would be a good way to tell... I got them both off amazon. It’s this one and this one (which I am using as I type. So I don’t know, maybe they aren’t as hard to find in shapes that aren’t boobs?

For years I've heard that those booby mousepads are actually really good for a person with carpal tunnel syndrome but didn't decide to test that knowledge because I don't want to buy a booby mousepad that would make me some sort of sex pervert, I was raised Catholic I'm a good boy not a sex pervert. But earlier this year I bought a Gigan body pillow as a joke only to find out body pillows are actually really comfortable sleep aids, so... so I bought one... I bought a booby mousepad.

...and my wrist feels so much better when I'm using it.

How many other comforts and aids have I forsaken because they're embarrassingly horny? How many discomforts have I endured purely out of a societal shame about expressing anything sexual? This world is fucked man.

[commsroom]

prefacing this by saying it's obviously just my opinion, but i've spent soo much time thinking about what makes an eiffel design look the Most Eiffel to me, personally, so here are some design notes:

dark, wavy/curly hair. unkempt. anywhere between just past his ears to about shoulder length. usually tied back in a low ponytail.

scruffy!! never, ever clean shaven. his facial hair is most prominent on his chin, and there's a visible break between the hair on his upper lip and the hair on his cheeks. stubble, short/patchy beard, or hair just on his chin all work well depending on style.

visible arm hair!! and any other body hair that's relevant. generally hairy guy. anything that makes him scruffier looking is important.

long features - long face, long limbs. lanky body type, but with a bit of weight in the gut. bad posture. talks with his hands. wide, open body language: tall-ish with fairly broad shoulders, but most of the space he takes up is in his limbs so he can kind of comically fold narrowly into himself when scared / being yelled at / etc.

(classic Doug Eiffel Arms Behind Head While Leaning Back and Floating pose is always a winner.)

expressive, to kind of an absurd degree. tired eyes. lopsided smile. his eyebrows do a lot of the work: i often see people instinctively draw eiffel with sheepish "─┘└─" shaped eyebrows and it's very real to me. constantly hamming it up even when he doesn't mean to. he has the presence of a class clown that never grew out of it.

prominent nose, kind of "square rounded" in shape with a wider tip <- same as zach valenti's. i wouldn't say he looks exactly like zach valenti to me, but definitely very close, with a difference more in style than features. italian-american by association...?

generic star wars logo tee as his default outfit, but other generic logo tees for things he likes, or "undershirt worn as shirt" also feel true. the key point is that it has to look like he bought it at walmart for less than ten dollars. will wear it until it disintegrates.

not really a guy who accessorizes either, unless wearing his headphones around his neck counts.

rarely wearing shoes. holes in every single one of his socks.

orange is my preferred flight suit color for how it visually suggests eiffel traded one prison for another. needless to say, maybe, he should never be wearing it properly. usually tied around his waist, but he pretty much never wears long sleeves - even if he has the sleeves on, they're always rolled way up.

[oliwrites]

Pretty

pairing: loki x fem!reader

genre: smut and fluff (smuff)

summary: loki came back from asgard and caught you looking at yourself in the mirror, admiring the way your new dress looked on you

warnings: smut (18+), oral (f receiving), praising, unprotected piv (wrap before you tap!!), squirting, cutie lil loki☹️

word count: 1.2k

A/N: if you wanna see the dress click here!!

You stood in front of the gold embellished mirror as you admired the olive green dress that you just bought with Natasha and Wanda today. The dress reached just above your knees and wrapped around your middle before puffing out slightly at the top to accompany the puffy long sleeves that cinched at your wrists. The neck of your dress was in a low square shape that showed off your collarbones well. You wore a golden locket with a picture of you and your lover, Loki, inside. The pendant sat in between your clavicles, pulling off the dress. You also had a simple pair of small hoops earrings you also got today while you girls went out.

You spread the skirt apart and turned to your side to admire the way the fabric accentuated your ass and made your breasts appear slightly bigger. You adored the way your calves flexed when you put one foot in a tiptoe position and dropped the skirt of the dress down, allowing it to breeze along your thighs once more. You twirled around and fancy the way the fabrics of the dress fly in the created wind you made from your twirl.

“I am looking good,” You say to yourself, giggling at the sight before you. You twirl around again and turn around away from the mirror before just turning your head back as much as possible to glance at your back, you move your hair over your shoulder to get a better view. For the first time in a while, you felt ethereal.

“There’s my pretty girl,” You heard a voice speak from the door across your room. Your head whipped around quickly, to see your boyfriend smiling back at you.

“Loki!” You chirped, running up to him and wrapping your arms over his shoulders and pulling him down for a kiss. You felt his hands smooth down your sides and land on your waist. He smiled into the kiss before pulling back.

“I missed you, my sweet girl,” Loki smiled before gripping on your waist a little harder and pulling you towards him, pressing your chest against his as he bends down and captures your lips once again. You squeak at the sudden action but quickly fall silent as your lips connect with his, “my little mouse,” Loki whispered into the kiss. You reach your hand into his hair, scratching his scalp slightly as he deepens the kiss. His hands travel from your waist to under your thighs. You jump up and wrap your legs around his slutty waist.

He gently places you down on the bed, before stepping back and admiring the view before him. He saw you admiring yourself in the mirror, but instead of interrupting you at first, he watched, amused at the scene before him.

“You’re so pretty, my darling girl,” Loki praised, unbuttoning his emerald green dress shirt before crawling on top of you. You giggled and whispered a quiet thank you.

“So are you. You’re really pretty,” you smile, cupping his cheeks and giving him a peck on the lips before moving to his jaw, down his neck, on his clavicles, and on his chest. You peppered kisses anywhere you could reach. Your nails softly ran up and down his chiseled back as you continued your affection. Loki’s chest vibrated as he let out a content hum.

“I appreciate your compliment, darling, but I was hoping I could show you just how pretty I think you are,” Loki mumbled. You didn’t miss his hands sliding up your thighs and under your dress. You bit your lip, trying to hold back the smile you so desperately wanted to bare.

“Already, my prince? You’re insatiable,” you teased, brushing a piece of his inky, black hair behind his ear.

“Only for you, my love,” Loki quipped, pushing the skirt of your dress up more, and began lowering himself down, maintaining eye contact with you the entire time. Once he reached your panties he stopped, “may I?” Loki asked. You nodded and lifted your hips up so he could slide your lace panties down your legs.

“So beautiful,” Loki whispered to himself before diving in. He licked a fat line up your cunt, causing you to moan out and arch your back. Loki threw your legs over his shoulders just to get deeper.

He circled his tongue around your clit as he moved one of his hands to your soaking folds. He pushed two fingers in, starting a steady pace as he continued his oral attack on your clit.

“Fuck! Loki! Yes, yes, yes!” You moaned out, gripping onto his hair for dear life as you felt your orgasm approaching fairly quickly. Loki hummed against you as he continued to eat you like a man starved.

“Soak me, min kjære,” Loki mumbled against you, curling his fingers just right causing you to scream out, your release spraying out of out. Your eyes screwed shut and your back arched as your orgasm quite literally soaked your lover right below you as he just stared at you in awe.

Once your orgasm came to an end your body went limp momentarily. You lifted your head to see Loki’s mouth and chin, chest, and the bedsheets below you absolutely soaked.

“I— I’m sorry,” You stuttered, embarrassed at the mess you made.

“Don’t be. I enjoyed it and clearly you enjoyed it too. Now, shall we continue?” Loki smirked, crawling back up your body and magicking away his pants and underwear to reveal his erection that was now firmly placed against the inside of your thigh.

“Please,” you asked simply, tracing all of the ripples and muscles that covered the expanse of his torso. Loki smiled at the sweet yet erotic gesture and gently pressed a kiss to your forehead before slowly sliding himself into you.

“Oh gods… you feel so— ahh… good,” Loki groaned as he slowly began to pump himself in and out of you, “so… tight,” he continued, nuzzling into the crook of your neck.

“Loki… please…” you moaned out, begging for something you don’t even know what for. Loki raised himself up from the crook of your neck and looked at you with pure lust and adoration, “you’re so pretty,” you smiled, gripping onto his triceps.

Loki didn’t know why, but hearing you say that made him keen. You had called him pretty so many times, why did this feel different? It was… arousing… it made him want to claim you.

“Say that again,” Loki demanded sweetly, hardening his thrusts slightly.

“You’re so so so pretty, my pretty boy,” You moaned out as he pressed that one spot deep inside you, “Fuck! Right there! Yes!” You screamed out, “Keep going, my pretty boy, please!” You exclaimed, raking your nails down his back, wrapping your legs around his waist to deepen his thrusts.

“Cum with me, my love, please…” Loki pleaded, placing a sweet kiss on your lips as the two of you went over the edge. Loki stilled inside of you for a moment as he spilled his seed deep inside your walls, before he continued to help you ride out your high.

Once the waves passed, Loki collapsed on top of you, trying to avoid putting too much weight on you. You played with his hair contently and slightly pouted when you felt him slip out of your used hole.

“I love you, my pretty girl,”

“I love you more, my pretty boy,”

**

translation(s):

min kjære - my beloved

A/N: i wrote this like hella late at night and i got this idea randomly so ignore any mistakes or bad writing bc i don’t care enough to go back and fix it.

[silkscreaming]

I made a volume 10 trimax vash cosplay for MAGfest and I am SO proud of how it came out :) Some process stuff below! Warning for image and text heavy.

Truthfully this cos is only about 85% complete—I’d purchased a bunch of hardware to really go in on a volume accurate version of his undersuit and belts, but simply ran out of time before the con. It was the first cosplay I’ve sewn since 2017 and the first wig styling I’ve done since 2020, so I’m not gonna beat myself up too much!

(This is all purse hardware off Etsy and some buttons from M&J trim)

This was my first time ever making a muslin mock-up, but I knew it was going to be necessary to get the coat to lay the way I wanted it to. I really wanted to try and create proportions that elongated the legs/torso and widened the shoulders by placing the coat tail splits appropriately and raising up the shoulders with some padding. And of course arm and leg details that I’ll get to someday lol.

I created two mock-ups. One of basic muslin that helped me go from an existing pre-bought pattern to something more Vash-shaped, then a second one on a slightly sturdier scrap fabric with my finalized torso proportions with padding so I could accurately pattern out the sleeves and collar.

I was tracing my pattern pieces onto newsprint and vellum as I went, so once all of those were finalized, it was time to cut my fabric! I used a heavy cotton twill from B&J fabrics and two kinds of fusible interfacing from Mood (I’m spoiled by being local to the fashion district these days). A smarter person would have bought a thinner fabric to line the inner torso with, but I did not feel like getting that complicated with my first ever muslin-drafted AND lined project, so I simply cut double of every pattern piece in order to create a lining.

Sleeves were done by interfacing and cutting into a top panel, carefully snipping at the cutout portions, ironing and fabritacking in place, and then top stitching the whole piece to the main sleeve. I later added some leather backing squares and interfacing behind the larger eyelets for aesthetic while keeping the ventilation in tact. Ideally in the future I'll also add a strip of fabric to the gun arm that creates a slight bunching effect since that sleeve is a little more ruffled over the cuff. Photos below also include three shoulder pads pinned together on each shoulder, but I ended up forgetting not using them on my final wear.

Unfortunately at this point I was approaching con time, so I started cutting some corners that I made easily replaceable for future upgrades. The coat tabs are just painted craft foam cut to the size of the buttons, tacked in place where the button pierces through the tab and where it wraps around the edge of the front panel. The straps that attach to the lapel and wrap under the arms also were just decorated with some silver trim instead of hardware, and I skipped the side button panels at his hips for pattern-making simplicity and time. They'll be added later! I'd also love to do some weathering, but don't think I can quite bring myself to riddle the coat tails with bullet holes as some people do haha.

Gun arm attachment was also a quick and dirty addition, just some vinyl trim on eva foam attached with contact cement and a decorative button. First time working with contact cement somehow, but I look forward to also being able to upgrade this at a later date to a more accurate shape with the full belt attachments!

I was also hoping to update the shoes a bit by making some boot covers for them and rub-n-buffing the soles to disguise the platform a bit, but I love my pick for the cleat-look that Vash has! Some good ol' Demonias in classic vash fashion :)

Last but not least: The Wig. My pride and joy.

I got lucky enough to nab an Arda sale, I think right before Halloween, and picked up the Morpheus lace front in black, along with some extra wefts in pale blonde. (I also bought a whole separate pale blonde Morpheus wig, boldly thinking I could swing a normal trimax vash wig lol. It made for a convenient Eriks wig in the mean time.)

Since I was aiming for the end of volume 10 post-Wolfwood death look, I started by trying on the wig, roughly tracing out my hairline, then gently unweaving that portion of black in order to re-ventilate it with blonde.

After I replaced that whole strip of plucked hair, I tried on again to finalize where I needed to ventilate to cover my own hairline, and completed my outline with both blonde and brown-black wefts (i had them on hand lol). All in all, I ventilated more than 4 square inches of blonde, and at least a solid centimeter extension of the black hairline across the whole front of the wig. Probably close to 30 hours of work in the ventilating alone, but I am a little slow since I haven't ventilated in a few years and didn't keep clear track of time.

If there's one thing I should be used to by now about Arda wigs, they are THICK. There is zero teasing in this wig. None. Just got2b, a blowdryer, and a prayer. And a good load of bobby pins. The wig was also sadly a last minute hotel room mad dash, and I do hope to restyle it under less duress, but I do think I successfully achieved the Trimax swoop and am very proud of it! It was unbelievably windy on the walk from our hotel room to MAGfest, so the photos in the start of this post show a bit more droop than my initial styling, but I think I'll be able to touch things up next wear.

And of course, shoutout to my partner for gifting me the official glasses for Christmas :) And thank you to my roommates who barely saw me for a month and a half except for when I needed help with a hem lol.

All in all, I am unbelievably proud of this cosplay, I can't wait to put some more love into it and wear it again!

[freezerbnuuy]

My Quick (ish) Way of Cleaning Up CC

I know that there are other ways to do this, and you don't necessarily need to do it this way, but this is how I quickly clean up CC I no longer need / want whilst the game is open using an older non-Curseforge version of Mod Manager.

Since of course you can't always delete or move game files whilst the game is open (at least not on Windows) what I do is use Mod Manager to tag things as 'to be deleted' so I can delete everything in one go after. Sometimes When it comes to pose pack thumbnails or CAS thumbnails I don't always remember the hair or creator just by looking at the thumbnail, so this works better for me.

Download the old version of Mod Manager. You can download the one that doesn't use / connect to Curseforge by clicking the white 'Download Mod Manager' button, then below the 4 buttons for the different operating systems it says 'Show All Versions' in grey text on the bottom left. Click it, and download the 1.0.9 beta for your Operating System.

I recommend backing up your CC before doing any cleanup in case you delete the wrong thing.

When you're done, open the program and whilst your game is open click Settings.

Click 'Analyse Thumbnail Cache'. This will search for missing item thumbnails in the localthumbcache.package and update them in Mod Manager.

With that done, it'll make cleaning up your CC a lot easier. So now it's the fun part, going through the relevant stuff in-game (buildbuy stuff in Live Mode, CAS stuff in CAS, testing out pose packs in Pose Player etc...)

First, we need to create a Category that we will tag our CC as.

To do that :

Go to the Categories button on the left-hand sidebar.

You'll see a green button saying 'Add New Category'. Call it 'DELETE' or 'TO BE DELETED' or something.

Click 'Add' and you'll see a little header at the top of the screen with your category's name on it.

Whether you're going through Live Mode to clean up Build-Buy, CAS to clean up clothes / accs or the Pose Player to clean up pose packs, you can easily and fairly quickly add all unwanted CC using this program to the 'TO BE DELETED' category to get rid of it all at once.

Let's say you're going through CAS CC, you're starting by cleaning up your hairs, and you've got a hair you've decided you don't like or don't need anymore. Once you've found it in-game:

Provided you've organised your CC to some level, you can look for it by thumbnail in a Hairs folder.

If not, and you have lots of files that are hard to sift through quickly and you know the creator's name, search for the creator instead. I'm going to be using a QR Sims hair as an example (I would never, EVER delete this hair it is one of my favourites! This is just an example)

(You may have problems searching for the creator because some creators have different names on their files than you'll know them by online, and others don't always name their files something that's easily-searchable or tied to them. You may also have issues if you've used the Bulk Rename Utility program to rename CC or remove spaces.)

QR Sims's hairs have their name on the thumbnails and they have their name in the file names. Select Home on the left-hand sidebar, and then you click the little triangle shape in the top left corner and click it to bring up the drop-down.

I've put in QRSims, and it's bought up all of their hairs. I click the 'Hair' to bring up the thumbnails of all the hairs and then I locate the one I'm looking to delete.

Select the hair that you want to delete, and then we're going to add it to the 'TO BE DELETED' category.

Click the little triangle-square-circle icon in the top right icon bar.

A dropdown will appear. Change the drop-down to 'TO BE DELETED' then click the green + button. Click 'Go Back'.

If you've done it correctly, you'll see a little 'TO BE DELETED' tag on the top of the thumbnail.

Once you're done going through CC and tagging stuff as 'TO BE DELETED', save and close your game.

Now, go to Home on the sidebar, and then click the Search triangle in the top right-hand corner.

On the Categories drop-down on the bottom of the menu, change it to be 'TO BE DELETED' and it will come up with all of the CC tagged as such, as well as the folders they are in.

Click the folder name/s to expand them, then click 'Select Filtered' on the bottom of the drop-down menu on the right. If all done correctly, all of the 'TO BE DELETED' files should be highlighted.

Then just click the bin icon in the top-right icon bar, click Yes and it'll delete the files for you.

I hope this is helpful for someone!

You can also use the 'Problems' option on the left sidebar and Duplicates to locate duplicate CC and delete it.

[herefortheships]

Similarities between the sequel and the Beetlejuice cartoon (Beetlejuice TAS, season 1)

I finished watching the first season of Beetlejuice: The animated show, and I noticed a lot of little details that seem to blend the toonverse with the sequel, and I thought I'd share them with you all.

Let me preface this by saying, I know that the toonverse is its own thing and is not supposed to be considered canon (at least not to the movieverse), but, as a fan, and totally ignoring that 😆, I just thought it'd be interesting and fun to compare the sequel and the toonverse. You can take this one seriously or not seriously at all. It might have been coincidences, but I don't think so. I personally think the writers either watched a few episodes, or had people watch a few episodes for them, and they derived some details from the animated show to include in the sequel.

We have to keep in mind that the animated show ran for years, and while of course many fans originated from the '88 movie, there are probably many more who became fans of the Beetlejuice universe by growing up with the cartoon, and only later discovered the movie. So, keeping this in mind, it would be natural if Tim Burton wanted to give a little nod or include some little details from the cartoon in the sequel, starting with Betelgeuse himself being considerably more like a PG-13 version of his cartoon iteration than his original movie self (now that I've been watching the cartoon, I can definitely see that his personality is a blend of the two).

I'm sure Tim recognizes that a huge section of the fandom comes from the animated show, plus Burton himself had his hand on the animated show as well, so it wouldn't be a crazy thing to consider he might have wanted to blend in elements of the toonverse with the movieverse.

So. Without further ado, here are some little details I noticed! I wish I would have watched the first season with this post in mind. If you want me to point out more similarities between toonverse and movieverse, while I'm watching the entire animated show for the first time now, let me know. I will pay more attention this time (just started season two tonight).

Here are some similarities between the cartoon's first season and BJBJ, in no particular order because I didn't take notes and this is at the top of my head:

Let's start with the most obvious one, and this starts from the very first episode: Dancing in the air. It definitely must be part of Tim Burton's vision for Lydia and Betelgeuse that they love to dance together (well, in the movieverse they aren't there yet lol, but they do have a lovely dance in midair in the movie, which is reminiscent of them dancing in the show all the time). It's even the first thing Beej does when he joins Lydia in the first episode. They danced in the air in several episodes this first season alone, and I'm sure I will see more dancing as the seasons go by.

They open a door to the sandworm world by pulling a lever, which totally reminded me of Betelgeuse pulling a lever in BJBJ to send Jeremy to hell. lol

Talking about that door, it also appears on the floor, which made me think about the moment Astrid draws the door to the Titan moon on the floor of the church in BJBJ. Not sure if this one is worth mentioning, because the shape of the door I think is round in the cartoon while in the movie it's a square door, but the fact that it's on the floor and the sandworm erupts through it is definitely a similarity I want to point out.

Talking about Astrid!! There are parallels between Astrid and Lydia: there was one episode (the Spooky Tree episode) in which Lydia is concerned about the environment and even does a form of activism to protect the tree. Astrid is also concerned about the environment.

This one might not be important, but I think it's worth mentioning since we're in the topic of Astrid and cartoon Lydia parallels: in one episode Lydia has a bag of piranhas she had bought for her dad's aquarium. (I just looked for the episode and this was on episode five "Laugh of the Party"). It's funny because... Astrid's dad was being eaten by piranhas when he drowned. This gives me a vibe that cartoon Lydia may have been part of the inspo for Astrid. Funny coincidence that both Lydia and Astrid's dads had a piranha moment?

Beetlejuice has a photo of Lydia. And it's almost exactly like the one he has in BJBJ. It also has cobwebs stuck behind it, just like his photo of her in the sequel. This was in one of my favorite episodes so far, "Out of my mind". Worth mentioning here as well that Beetlejuice literally has a giant photo of Lydia in his head, showing that she's pretty much the most important thing he thinks about. One could say in BJBJ she's also constantly in his head as well, considering the man waited over 30 years just for her.

Another detail, and I totally sent a screenshot of this one to my sisters: there's a man sitting in the afterlife waiting room with his body half-eaten by a shark. The shark is still attached to him, but the fact that there is a man half-eaten by a shark immediately made me go "huh!" when I saw it in the cartoon because that is how Charles Deetz died in the sequel. Another funny coincidence? Nah, I think not!

Edit: I forgot to add this one! In one episode, Beetlejuice and the gang become performers (armpit music lol). There's a scene Beetlejuice says he has a romantic number to dedicate and he takes his heart in his hand. Maybe not that significant, since he's not aiming this at Lydia (he isn't dedicating it to anyone in particular but the audience), BUT he did take out his heart to dedicate a romantic number, just like he did in BJBJ, so I'm including this.

Edit to add Another Lydia and Astrid parallel: In the cartoon, this blonde girl, Claire, picks on Lydia for being odd, basically. Lydia stands out because of her strange and unusual personality. We can see in BJBJ Astrid also gets picked on due to her family's connection to ghosts and her mom's show. Astrid also stands out as strange and unusual at her school.

Additional stuff:

Inflatable Beetlejuice. Pretty sure this happened several times in season 1, though not quite like in the movie. It was even part of a song Lydia and Beej sing in the first episode. lol

Beetlejuice turns himself into a pretty wild Babyjuice in the first epiosde. Didn't include this one on the list above because it's Beej who turns himself into a baby, vs him manifesting an "inner child" baby and a nightmare baby in BJBJ.

This is it for this post! Feel free to add more if I missed something from season one! Will probably make a post like this about season two as well if I notice more similarities between the toonverse and the sequel.

[lalalalalalakakakak]

I had some doubts while doing it, but in the end my Vox cosplay turned out not too bad in my opinion, I am honestly pretty satisfied!

The head is probably a bit too square-shaped and the tailcoat was a big loose jacket at first, I removed the excess fabric from the sides and used it to make the tails of the tailcoat. (The light blue part is simply another jacket sewn inside, i bought it for €2 at a flea market).

I had also a Valentino, but he is in a vacation in Cina so he couldn't come with us. So i went with Husk (and the Valentino guy was also the only one able to do decent photos, we were terrible at it as you can tell from those photos)

But we had lots of fun!! And that's the important! I'm very happy!!

SO NOW YOU ALL HAVE TO SEE ME BEING EMBARRASSING IN PUBLIC FOR A DAY I'M SORRY I DON'T MAKE THE RULES

And the amount of people was insane, there were so many people that our internet and our phones didn't work all days!!!

Also we wanted to join the Hazbin Hotel cosplay gathering, but we got lost and we were super late so we missed it XD

[linghxr]

My trip to Taiwan

I took a break from posting because...I went to Taiwan! This was my first time going there, and I was mostly in Taipei. I had a great time and took many, many photos. I'll share some highlights here (along with commentary) to commemorate my trip.

Left: Liberty Square 自由廣場 Right: Chiang Kai-shek Memorial 中正紀念堂

You can't tell here, but there was a row of porta-potties directly to the left of the archway. That was a funny sight. There was also a stage in the middle of the square. Maybe they do outdoor concerts?

Left: Tamsui Old Street 淡水老街 Right: "Sidewalk"

Besides the main roads, most streets lacked raised sidewalks. Instead, they had a painted path. I had to get comfortable being very, very close to cars and other vehicles.

Left: Motorbike parking lot near Tamsui Old Street Right: Covered sidewalk.

I’ve seen motorbikes before in China, but Taipei took things to a new level. Motorbikes were absolutely everywhere. I even saw this parking lot exclusively for motorbikes. They rule the streets.

In the busy downtown districts, you often don’t need an umbrella due to the covered sidewalks. You can walk for blocks and blocks while staying covered. This was pretty convenient on rainy days.

Left: Jadeite Cabbage 翠玉白菜 at the National Palace Museum 國立故宮博物院 Right: Umbrella rack (also at the museum)

Confession—I didn't think the National Palace Museum was that good. Probably because I've been to the actual Forbidden City in Beijing. And sadly, the Meat-Shaped Stone wasn't on exhibit.

In the US, some stores will provide a plastic bag for your wet umbrella. In Taipei, many stores had a rack or basket outside instead. Most were not as secure or elaborate as the one pictured.

Left: Eslite Xinyi Store (bookstore) 誠品信義店 Right: Sun Yat-sen Memorial 國父紀念館

I bought a couple books and a Yoga Lin CD at the Eslite 24-hour bookstore. I only planned to swing by, but I think I spent 2 hours there. I definitely recommend checking it out if you're in Taipei.

Taipei 101 台北101

It was overcast when I went to Taipei 101, but the view was still nice. On the bright side, there was NO line. 101 is by far the tallest building around, so you really feel that you're looking down at the city.

Taroko National Park 太魯閣國家公園

Taroko was the only place I visited outside of the Taipei/New Taipei City area. It's in Hualien county on the east coast. There were so many betel nut stores in the countryside on the way there.

Left: Pond at NTU 國立臺灣大學 Right: 228 Peace Memorial Park 二二八和平紀念公園

Taipei has the best parks! They really put American parks to shame. Before going, I didn't understand why so many Taipei parks are tourist destinations with 4.5+ star reviews, but now I totally get it.

Elephant Mountain 象山

I didn’t realize how mountainous Taiwan is. Taipei is cradled by mountains, so there are many places to hike, even within city limits. I braved the rain for the famous view from Elephant Mountain.

Subway billboard 臺北捷運

The Taipei Metro/MRT was amazing. So fast, clean, frequent, and convenient. US subway systems are a joke in comparison. These are from an amusing series of billboards promoting riding etiquette.

Some other observations:

I was quite impressed by all of the English signage in Taipei. I think it would be very easy to navigate even if you don’t know Chinese. Many stores and small eateries had menus, signs, etc. in English.

I knew Taiwan had many convenience stores, but I was not prepared to see a Family Mart or 7/11 on every block. Someone needs to open this style convenience store in the US ASAP.

I saw numerous adds featuring Korean actors like Son Ye-jin and also kpop groups like IVE and NewJeans. I also heard kpop playing at various stores, whereas in America, I only hear it at Hmart.

I was struck by how many street signs and subway stops names used pinyin romanization. There was a lot of inconsistency and mixing of different romanization systems. For example, you have Taipei vs. Beitou (same character: 北).

There were many Japanese stores, pharmacies, and restaurants. Upon further consideration, this makes sense given Taiwan's history, but it stood out to me nonetheless.

Overall, I had a lovely time in (mostly) Taipei. As a big city (but not too big) surrounded by beautiful nature, there's something for everyone. I already want to go back! Of course I also want to see some other areas of Taiwan too. Maybe next year.

[circeius-invidioso]

I am so unbelievably fucking tired of people on reddit being like...

Why square bases? They aren't allowed in the wargame.

You can't play competitive with square bases!

Square bases are against the rules, you can't have them! You need to remove them and put them on round ones!

Square bases are for display only!

And 20 more variations to that.

Firstly

no

Secondly

There are more ways to play games in the 40k setting besides competitive and the latest ruleset of the wargame.

A small and not complete list is.

1) Narrative play, where the rules are loose and the victory is not as important as the "just having a beer with the buds while having fun"

2) Space Hulk, where its more important where the mini is pointed than the shape of the base.

3) Rogue Trader, the tabletop rpg. Where the shape of the base is the least of our worries.

4) Dark Heresy, the tabletop rpg again. Where the shape of the base is not very important. Again what are the odds.

5) Deathwatch, another tabletop rpg. I won't repeat myself you get it.

6) Black Crusade, see above. Again.

And the list could go on but I am not that petty...

Well actually I am so let's continue.

7) A Dnd module, because 40k is not only a wargame it's also a setting and what if I want to play a dnd game and my character to be a dazzling space monk in chrome. Who will stop me? The fun police?

8) A wargame with friends, because everyone can indeed be fine with me having square bases and we count distances from the middle of the mini. Why not? Who is going to stop us? The thot police?

9) Wrath and Glory, another tabletop rpg set in the 40k universe.

10) A custom module of Shadow of the Demon Lord, it's weirdly and oddly fitting for grey knights. I don't know, maybe I am just insane but I liked it.

And I could go on.

Because again, 40k is a setting not a ruleset.

You can take the minis you bought and do with them as you please. Paint them, keep them in a cave, even eat them if you have the stomach for it.

I am just exhausted of having to explain my choices time after time.

Not everyone in the community plays the wargame. And that is ok.

We exist. We might be few and far between but we exist dammit.

I don't know what kind of fumes they are huffing in there and are so comfortable popping out of the bushes being like

You can't do that. You will not he allowed in a tournament with those bases.

Maybe I don't give a single flying and swimming duck about competitive, Kyle.

Maybe I play the rpgs, Kyle.

Maybe I am not going on a tournament, Kyle. I didn't ask for advice for tournament rules, Kyle.

I swear if this stick continues for the rest of the year Imma start designing a tabletop game where you can only use square bases for your minis.

Old world style.

Space hulk on speed.

Pen and paper Ultrakill.

Roided out dnd.

The sky is the limit.

God is dead.

🌈And the wargame is not the only option if you want to play a tabletop game in the 40k setting.🌈

[petermorwood]

Here’s a dish from French Cooking Academy, another of my subscribed YouTube channels.

I like the business of stuffing each chunk of beef with a bit of garlic and bacon; I’ve done this with lamb, using garlic and lemon. Another interesting detail is the use of cinnamon, suggesting a way-back-when influence either from the Moors or having access to spices as they passed through from Dpain Spain or North Africa on the way to somewhere else.

Kokkinisto (Greek) and Tajine (Morocco) also use cinnamon - and cloves, and nutmeg, and ginger etc. etc. depending on recipe. I’ve made both, they’re really excellent.

@dduane​ and I got Very Interested because the use of what Mum used to call “cake spices” is also quite medieval and, in DD’s case, adaptable for the Middle Kingdoms project.

The Corsican one recommends rigatoni, cannelloni or similar large hollow pasta (presumably to hold lots of sauce!) For a more medieval approach I’d try Loseyns from late-1300s cookbook “The Forme of Cury” (that’s “cookery” without the k, so “coo’rey” not “curry”.)

*****

These are often regarded as Richard II-era ”lasagne”, though I wonder if there’s also an association with heraldic “lozenges”, easily created by cutting a sheet of pasta dough slantwise...

Either way, here’s “Tasting History with Max Miller” (subscribed of course!) having a go at Loseyns, which turn out like mac & cheese with extra spices.

Max ended up eating them with a stick because forks hadn’t been introduced yet, but IMO a better utensil would be the historical eating pick, like one of these.

...or even a spoon, especially if the loseyns were cut small with that in mind.

However eating pasta with the fingers - like many other foods - may have been done in the 1300s; it was certainly recorded in paintings from the 1600s...

...right up to the 1800s...

...though I don’t think these were dressed with anything more than oil or butter and some grated cheese, and the potential for messy eating was still pretty high. Eating small pasta rather than dangly strands with the fingers was probably much tidier, especially if diners knew the proper etiquette for doing it...

Finally, here’s something from our own store-cupboard, bought out of curiosity during a recent visit to Polonez in Dublin.

This is pasta cut into little squares; both the front and the back of the pack calls them łazanka...

...and according to Google Translate, this just means “pasta noodles”.

However...

Can any followers tell me if "łazanka” has any relationship to “lasagna” or “lozenge”? An enquiring mind wants to know! :->

ETA: @seriously-mike​ says “...łazanki were brought to Poland in 16th century by queen Bona Sforza (so) the relationship with lasagna might be there.” See his Reply for more info.

ETA (2): A little bell went off in my head about the shapes in the bag and I suddenly remembered seeing them as something call “torn pasta” - the Italian word is “maltagliati“ - which were made using re-rolled scraps of dough from “formal” shapes; more info at that link.

[obsessedwhim]

Office Time

You were ecstatic to hear that Ichigo would soon be spending some quality time in the Seireitei with his dear friends and probably training, which was always an inevitable option.

Though his arrival was in a few days you were bursting with glowing nervous energy, not that he was aware of your lowly sixth-seat self but man! You sure were aware of him!

Not only was he the courageous Hero who saved your home more times than you have fingers, but he was also kind, interesting and.. and... soooooOOOOOoooooo a t t r a c t i v e !

So tall and cool, you could barely look at him whenever Ichigo had somehow made it near your vicinity. Not to mention his intimidating Zanpakuto, shaped unlike any sword you had ever seen!

The first time you saw him in person was... admittedly- seeing Yoruichi pick up the youngster after his defeating of The One and Only Kenpachi Zaraki, Capitan to Squad Eleven.

She watched for a moment as you and your squad mates rushed to the scene of the crime and after that, it's like the bright burn of his hair scorched itself into the very wrinkles of your brain. Burning brighter with every thought that passed through your simple little scull.

There was this one time when you had to make a house call to a Lieutenant and the ginger just happened to be there. You kept quiet and tried so hard to keep your eyes on the bandages before you, but then a shadow covered the sunlight you needed and so, you glanced up with a question in your throat only to swallow said question like a cold rock once you saw it was the legendary Kurosaki, leaning over you with a curious stare. Sunlight glowing from behind him as if he were some sort of stunning.. glowy.. person- thing...

"Oh, hey there" he flickered his eyelids in blissful innocents, as if not sure if you were a person or not. Not that you've been acting like a normal person since noticing his spiritual energy which surrounded you like water, as though you had somehow sunk to the very bottom of the deepest lake- oddly, very much like a suffocating hug. You wondered what pressure Ichigo would use on you with his bare hands, not that he would, but say he would...

Before any more lude thoughts were able to flush the blood to your cheeks you blinked and began packing your things away quickly "Welp, that's all the help I can give ya Renji, stay well- be safe! Byyeeeee!"

With a medical box underarm, the smallest of the three ran out of a nearby door and hoofed it over the first garden wall you came across. Leaving both males blinking in your wake.

Though the memory itself was keeping you awake at bedtime with wave after wave of cringe, seeing his eyes up close- the way you could recall the different layers of brown in his almond-shaped gaze and still feel his room temp breath fanning on you from above- it was all worth it. The strange smell he emitted clung to your nostrils, but you being you enjoyed the odd scent coming from him, which you learned later on was a human realm aftershave.

Would it be weird if you bought it? That's weird, right? No... is it?

Whatever, because now was the time to completely indulge yourself in your work, with Hanataro off sick for the next couple of days you were chomping at the bit to get rid of this mountain of paperwork. You couldn't take all these tumultuous emotions and so it was time to forget all about 'em and focus on the perfect piles you had created, both alphabetically and essentiality wise.

It was perfect! Just you, this warm cup of tea and a wonderful breeze that drifted through the window. Nothing would take you away from your office space on this day!

Letting out a slow breath you sat at your desk, flickering through a handful sheets until a few squad mates ran by your open window, glancing at the outside world while black uniforms blurred past the square opening. The stampede pulled the forms you held to your chest in a strong rush of air and the white reports danced across the moving flashmob of rushing Reapers.

"No!" You reached after the vanishing articles, going limp and accepting your fate for now with a wince "Those were the forms to confirm public bathrooms..."

"Here" a hand held out a crumpled pile "I dunno if I got 'em all, but.. This is what I was able to get"

You felt it as soon as he held out those crumpled papers, his pouring energy washing over your skin as if the very sun itself took a moment out of its day to shower you with that good ol' fashioned Vitamin C, trying to ignore your burning flesh you held out shaky hands with a bowed skull "T-thank you, you.. didn't have too"

Though you couldn't see it, Ichigo's shining eyes widened and he near dropped the pile into your little hands before clearing his throat "Naaah, it's.. no problem" he scratched the side of his head before realising you weren't moving.

"Yooou uh, you okay there?" the local Hero quirked a brow as you took a moment to quietly whimper to yourself "I... can't move"

Ichigo bent his knees and squatted before you, glancing up through his lashes and the strands of your hair it was becoming increasingly harder to breathe normally, he was absolutely breathtaking, even more so than you thought from all the distances you'd seen the wonderful Kurosaki form, from all angles. Which was rather annoying at this point in time, but oh well.

Your lungs squeezed at the window corner internally slicing you in half and Ichigo chuckled as blood filled your cheeks "You want some help?" he questioned, grinning widely and you couldn't help but hold what little breath you were getting.

Keeping his eyes matched with yours the male grabbed the scruff of your uniform and lifted you back into your office window all while your fingers shredded the at sheets mercilessly as you imagined his strong hand wrapped around your throat instead.

"Well.." Ichigo turned with a salute, not letting you see his blush rise at how light you were, he could just pick you up and take you away from here "See you 'round"

And there he left you, before anything could register through your shocked being but still that strange aftershave drifted through you and proceeded to stay with you for the rest of your office time.

[inevitableisopod]

Utterly Ridiculous

Okay so, as promised, today is sword review day!

Last year, i bought a LK Chen sword, my first one in fact! For those who don't know LK Chen is a Chinese sword manufacturer that specialises in high fidelity replicas of original Chinese swords

Enter the Yan-Ling Dao. so, what is a dao? its basically the equivalent of a European falchion or messer, especially the yan-ling dao, or goose quill sabre; which usually has a (sometimes sharpened) false edge near the point where it narrows dramatically to a honestly somewhat worryingly fine point, as well as one to two fullers (grooves) running most of the length of the blade.

Specifications 

Sword only weight:  approx. 878 g (1 lb. 14.9 oz)

Blade length approx.         69.50 cm  (27.36")

Handle including fitting     18.00  cm  (7.08")

Total length                        87.00 cm  (34.25")

Point of Balance approx.     8.5 cm (3.35") from hand guard

Blade thickness  

at base:                   8.50 mm  

40 cm from base: 5.00 mm  

5 cm from tip: 2.20 mm  

Blade width  

at base:                   33.5 mm  

40 cm from base: 33.0 mm

50 cm from base: 35.0 mm  

60 cm from base: 31.0 mm  

it features wrought iron hilt and scabbard fittings, a (what looks like oak) handle; which is glued and pinned to the tang in 3 places, 2 bamboo pins and a hollow copper pin that allows a lanyard to be attached; wrapped in waxed cotton what is not glued in place, but is however wrapped so tightly that i sincerely doubt it will ever come loose. the sword carries a sun and sky theme with a sun shaped guard and brass decoration around the copper pin. the scabbard fittings match the square handle fittings and feature cloud motifs at the attachment points with copper rivets to continue the colour scheme.

it comes with a wood cored and vegan leather wrapped scabbard that does not retain the sword. i have few problems with this especially concerning that the blade widens until about 2/3 of the way along but it could certainly be a tighter fit. fit aside i have no problems with the scabbard. the general fit and finish of the sword is superb, everything is extremely tight and i could not find a gap or seam i could actually get a fingernail in. the peen is very clean and the hollow copper pin and brass washer are sanded smooth enough you cannot feel them in your grip.

a final thing to note in details is that it comes as standard with a pattern welded blade, and while this doesn't effect the blade performance in any way with modern steels (in fact perhaps decreasing the durability) it is extremely well executed and honestly beautiful to look at, the pattern reminding of ink in water smoke,or perhaps a wood grain. the pattern is very fine and lightly etched, and the overall blade finish is a mirror polish

Onto usage! this is what inspired the title because the bastard thing is absolutely terrifying. its rather forward weighted but still fast and agile, and most importantly, boy does it cut. it's honestly perhaps too good at cutting? bottles? no resistance, even if you significantly bugger it up, wood is absolutely fine so long as you don't go too far, there is almost zero hand shock and due to the fact that the blade is oh so slightly convex, the edge is shockingly durable and like a razor. I've shaved with this sword, and it was bloody smooth. early on i had a small accident with it where it bit through 4 towels, a hoodie and about 6mm into my arm while i was wiping it off with no notable resistance

above is a cardboard tube i cut with it. these make fairly difficult targets as they are relatively hard on the surface and very light, so they just tend to go flying if the cut isn't perfect. this sword doesn't have that problem. it just does it. below is an example of a rising cut where i massively messed up my angle

here's a poplar branch it cut through in one blow (thumb for scale)

it cuts. really well. it also handles very nicely, it feels half way between a very nimble and agile blade that just wants to move, and a blade that desires to be swung into a target as hard as possible with no finesse, and honestly, it does both really well. it stabs extremely well too, i first tested it against bottles and then wood, deliberately twisting the point slightly, and it's still completely straight.

so it's an incredible cutter, it thrusts well, and it's durable beyond what you would expect it to be. so what's the downside?

well, the scabbard just straight up doesn't retain the blade. at all. and the handle is very square. i personally found the handle very comfortable if gripped below the iron fittings, and the handle geometry is certainly beneficial to edge alignment, but it's worth pointing out

Overall, i completely adore it. it's my favorite sword in my collection and the one i'd keep if i had to give up all the others. it's full of character, it cuts like a monster and honestly it's just drop dead gorgeous.

available from the knight shop (uk) or kult of athena (us) for the low low price of £475 (check kult of athena yourself icba)

in conclusion, get it. now. i am no longer asking. i don't care if you aren't a fan of Chinese swords or sabres but it's so magnificent you need one, even if you think you don't

Thank you all for reading my beloved readers, next post will be something? i'm open to suggestions. the next review may be coming in December or January. it might be another dao or perhaps a sidesword???????

May your edges stay sharp, and your points true!

[squirrellypoo]

I made another Interview with the Vampire tribute shirt, and this one is my most ambitious yet.

The inspiration came from the photo of Lestat's face from the lifts at SDCC, but I had to somehow get it into a format that would work for a one-colour vinyl. I played around with halftone filters on Photoshop for a few weeks until enough of his expression came through despite the filter. I then created a coffin-shaped mask over it so it wasn't just an abrupt square, layered some vector blood splats, and added the "L'Amour est un Monstre" text that I've vectorised off one of the other SDCC posters (scroll to the end for more of my vectorised heat set vinyl designs).

Cleaned up Lestat image courtesy of @sonicwaffles 😘

I was finally pretty happy with the artwork so I set about sewing a vessel shirt for it to go onto. As is becoming habit, I used the FehrTrade Versatili-Tops pattern, and bamboo jersey from Dalston Mill. Sewing is "my thing" so it's just easier for me to sew a shirt rather than go buy one, tbh.

For the vinyl I really wanted the blood to hold its own against the white, so I bought a sheet of red glitter heat set vinyl from Happy Fabric, and my go-to white heat set vinyl I buy by the roll. I sent the vectors to my Silhouette cutting machine, then weeded out the negative space, which was nerve-wracking considering how delicate the face detail is!

As this design required three separate layers, I not only had to cut out each of the three designs separately, but they had to be ironed on in two/three steps, too. First I ironed on the red glitter "blood" splatters, then the Lestat face, and finally the writing.

I also added the show logo to the right sleeve, just to make my bootleg shirt feel a little more official (logos on sleeves seem "official" to me, I dunno why??).

I am beyond chuffed with how the finished shirt turned out! I was literally jumping up and down with glee because it turned out even better than the vision in my head!

And, since you stuck around this long, here's a few other IWTV heat set vinyl garments I've been playing with recently...

I've vectorised a whole bunch of text and motifs from the show which I'm happy to share, so if the svg files are of any use to you, DM me.

[jacqueline-p-rose]

I’ve had a spate of good luck with op shops lately. I found the cutest corduroy blazer that perfectly matches my high-waist baggy corduroy trousers. I found a beautiful psychedelic floral pattern dress that I put back initially because I thought it wouldn’t fit (size 8, oof), but then came back weeks later and it was still there tempting me, so I tried it on and it actually fits!* I found this long black suede jacket for $20 that is very Gender in that way of like, remember in the late 80’s slash early 90’s when women’s clothes were emulate masculine? The shoulder pads, the boxy, square cut of everything, daggy blue jeans and button down business shirts, you know what I mean? But then the new millennium hits and women’s clothes are supposed to show off your curves (and everything else besides), so jackets were fitted in an hourglass shape again, shirts were cropped, and jeans were skinny and low slung. Well this jacket is somewhere in between there, it had half-arsed shoulder pads that I immediately pulled out, and it’s not square but not fitted either. It kind of looks like I’m wearing my boyfriends jacket, but if I had a boyfriend and he wore it, he’d get teased for being a metrosexual. It’s my new favourite thing.

All of that, though, pales in comparison to this: About a month ago I went to the op shop closest to my house, and along with my new favourite jacket, I also bought the first and third book of Hugh Howey’s Silo Saga, Wool and Dust. I have no idea why they would only have the first and third of a series, who is donating just those two and keeping the middle book? Or did they never have the middle book to begin with? They enjoyed the first book enough to want to know how the series ends but not enough to slog through the middle? I have this series as ebooks, so it’s not the end of the world (and honestly that could explain the missing middle, I have series where I own part as ebooks too), but it was just niggling at me. I asked the gorgeous woman working there if they had Shift (the middle book) as well, but she didn’t know and said she would hold it for me if she saw it. Great idea in theory, but I’m not particularly remarkable so it seems unlikely that she would remember. Besides, I got the impression that she was just script-reading without specific intention.

Fast forward to Tuesday just gone, I’m in an unaffiliated op shop over the other side of town with my partner, and I think you can see where this is going. They’re browsing books while I flick through the CDs, and I jokingly asked “Do they have Shift by Hugh Howey?” Could you imagine my surprise when, yeah, they did! And only Shift. Either someone only had the middle book not realizing, or this is the mythical missing book from the same person as before. Which begs the question, what kind of person has all three books of a trilogy to donate, but splits them up like that? One and Three to an op shop on this side of town, and Two to a totally unrelated op shop on the other side of town? I can’t imagine splitting them up like that accidentally, so I can only imagine it’s deliberate, out of pure spite or impish whimsy. Well jokes on you Hypothetical Guy, my op shop lucky streak has given me another win, and foiled your plans of entropic disruption.

My partner also found this adorable lucky cat, which might be the culmination of my good luck run, but I don’t know how partnership weighs into personal karma, so it might be unrelated.

*when I say “fits”, I mean it does up to below my boobs. I can zip it all the way up but it pancakes my C’s like standing on a water balloon. Fortunately, the zip is at the front, and it’s still cute and holds it’s shape with a cami underneath, so I call that a win.