#wasn't sure if I was gonna post it or not but EHHHH

[vincentbriggs]

@once-a-polecat replied to your post “My uncle's friend asked if I wanted this machine...”:

So do Whites have the same parts availability as Singers? I see them around for a fraction of the price, I’ve just been holding out for a Singer because the parts are relatively easy to source. I’ve seen some really lovely White machines tho! I bet yours is going to look stunning when it’s cleaned up. That cabinet is {chefs kiss}

​I don't know, I haven't looked into it because mine's not missing any pieces and still has all 6 bobbins.

I think that as long as you can verify that it has all the parts, and at least one or two bobbins, it probably won't need any new ones.. ever? The little rubber ring on the bobbin winder and the treadle drive belt degrade after a few decades and need replacing, but you can easily buy those, and everything else is highly unlikely to break from regular use.

The one thing I was worried about was accidentally stripping the screws while taking it apart for cleaning, and there was one screw that I didn't quite have the right size of screwdriver for and it started to look a bit ehhhh so I just didn't take that part off. It wasn't one of the really gunky ones anyways, and I did my best to clean around it, and may try again someday if I get more sizes of screwdriver. So I'd advise making sure you have all the right tools before starting and slathering all the stuck bits well in kroil (what the guy in a video I watched yesterday used) or wd-40 (what I used) or some such loosening thing.

It seems like it's very hard to find new bobbins, especially since there are different styles of shuttle and the bobbins are not interchangeable. Mine's a boat style and my bobbins wouldn't work in a bullet style from a couple years later.

While cleaning this thing it hasn't even crossed my mind to wonder where I'd find replacement parts because, well, what could possibly break? Nearly every single piece is cast iron or steel, and it's already been used SO much that the decals on the bottom are almost completely gone just from the amount of fabric that's run over it.

As mentioned in the previous post it's about 140 years old, was owned by a woman who made her living sewing on it for many decades, and it still works just fine! I haven't got the bobbin winder cleaned up yet and it's still off the cabinet, but I couldn't resist trying it out with just the hand wheel (using one of the bobbins that was wound long before I was born) once I got all the bits back on and yeah! Perfect stitches right away!

As long as it's kept well oiled it's just gonna keep on chugging along indefinitely.

Are you seeing these White machines in person at secondhand stores and such? If you can check to make sure they have bobbins and that no pieces are missing, I'd say grab one! Maybe keep some reference pics of working ones so you can look and see, or even better see if you can make a stitch with it before buying it, and presumably if it can do that even slowly and gunkily then it'll just need cleaning like this one did.

By all accounts they're REALLY good machines! I'm super excited to try mine out properly, and to post more about all the features. It has a lip around the bottom of the needle bar so that if some oil drips down it won't get on your needle! Genius!! Why doesn't every machine ever have that?! It's also fairly quiet AND you can adjust the bobbin tension right in the middle of a seam without disturbing the sewing or taking the shuttle out. Incredible.

The manual for mine says "The Best in the World" on it, and while that's just a normal Victorian thing to say about a product, I'm not about to argue with them. There are a few little things that I like better on Singers, such as the quality of the hinges that hold the machine to the cabinet, and the way the presser foot attaches, but all in all this White VSII is extremely goddamn good so far and I have no doubt that once I get the bobbin winder cleaned up it'll also work perfectly!

So yeah, GET ONE!

[demonsfate]

Imma be honest, chief. I liked Xiaoyu in Bloodline :/ I enjoyed her moments with Jin and Hwoarang, although I understand and agree with your post. I did like her in Blood Vengeance, but that was probably one of the only positive aspects of the movie. While they got her right, they also massacred Jin 💀 Seems like they miss a lot with both of them most of the time, at least in different media. The comics are not that good either. Do you think 8 will do them right again? I know for sure they're trying with Jin. I think, from the little glimpses we've seen of Xiao, that she might be her normal game self.

She was alright in Bloodline, but I meant like in terms of accuracy to her game self... she just doesn't feel like Xiao. Though, there were moments with her were kinda a pass for me. (The whole Devil Jin fiasco scene LOL. The scene with her against King is pretty silly - mostly due to the other scenes established in the show. Jin breaking Leroy's leg to the point he has a permanent limp, but Xiao can be thrown into a tree hard enough to leave an imprint and she just has a concussion lol)

The only positive aspect in BV in my opinion were Xiao and Alisa's characterization. If they had just made the movie a full fledge slice of life comedy between those two instead of trying to shoehorn all the Mishimas in it, I think it would've been better. But yeah - it's really sad how bad Jin was in that movie. Mostly bc he felt influenced by Tek6 Jin (thank FUCK Xiao wasn't influenced by Tek6 Xiao. Then the movie would've been unbearable.) Like him saying he doesn't care if the world gets destroyed by his and Kazuya's fight. Uhhhhhhh... do the writers need to be reminded why Jin wanted to kill Kazuya in the first place? Wasn't it to... oh I don't know... save the world?

So far, Tek8 is doing REALLY good with Jin characterization wise. Now story wise? Ehhhh... too soon to say. It has a lot of Tek6 references which kinda hinders it a bit. But so far, with the way Jin's behavior is a vast improvement and does remind me of his old self. As for Xiao, I'd say she was already improved quite a bit in Tek7. In fact, it's probably thanks to Blood Vengeance that Xiao was fixed. Considering she was massacred in Tek5, and then brutally tortured in Tek6, but it was Tag 2 where she was obviously influenced by Blood Vengeance. Instead of being a yandere like she was in Tek6, she went back to being shy about her crush regarding Jin (like she was in Tek4, just like in that game - in Tag 2, Miharu teases Xiao about her crush and she gets annoyed. Thank fuck she's not like "I'm gonna kill people so I can marry jin! :D" Jesus Christ) And Tek7 already removed her REALLY, beyond childish intros/outros that Tek5 added. (Such as the one where she's shaking and Scared, the one where she goes "uh-oh!" the one where she acts confused that she even won, and the one where she smacks her butt and says "bye-bye!" even if, admittedly i liked that one just fine. The rest were ughghughhh) And since it seems like she's gonna be important in the story this time around, I think Xiao is gonna be really good in Tek8, too. But as said - she was already being fixed faster than poor Jin was.

I think I'm gonna make a post about my opinions regarding Jin's depictions throughout all the adapted medias. (Since most of 'em are Bad, too.) but I will say the one thing I enjoyed about the comics - referring to the Tek7 one - is Jin and DJ's relationship. Whilst the comic doesn't exactly depict how I write their powers / being in control works, it does depict their dynamic quite well. It being a weird toxic one where DJ goes from being mocking to Jin, to DJ being very supportive and acting like he cares. It does that extremely well to what I've always pictured it, and I hope Tek8 will depict their relationship similar.

[good-wine-and-cheese]

20th Century Boys Feelies

Alright here it comes this is just a big ol’ dump of my feelings about 20th Century Boys. Since a lotta people who follow me haven’t read it (and also just because it’s stupid long) I’ll keep it under the cut!

Plot

This was a fun kind of story to read! It was a bit strange in that it felt almost more innocent than Monster, despite the fact that much much worse things happen in 20th Century Boys that threaten the entire world as opposed to the much more self-contained story that Monster was...but I think that has to do with the nature of the story itself. It really does read like the kind of story a bunch of kids would put together, so as terrifying as everything is, it’s hard not to forget that (at least for me). It felt a lot more adventurous and light-hearted as a story. Which isn’t to say that the threat wasn’t felt - it definitely was, it just had a different feel to it. Also the approach to realistically dissecting certain themes in shows (like giant mechs) was fun for me.

Narrative Style

I think one of my favourite things about 20cb was actually the way the story was told kinda back and forth across various points in time. When we got flashbacks to childhood, we only ever saw exactly enough of a particular scene to keep the mystery going while also feeding some new details. It was a very effective way to make me keep reading so I could see that scene again and get more information the next time. It could be a bit difficult to follow sometimes (particularly at the end, when more stuff gets included) but tbh it wouldn’t be the same if it was told differently. 

There was also the humour that really caught my eye (moreso in the way it was shown visually). Kyoko especially had some very comedic facial expressions - it really felt like I could ‘hear’ her sometimes which usually I have a hard time with when reading. 

Characters (as a whole)

God are they relatable. The thing about 20th Century Boys’ cast is that...there’s something that I can see of myself in almost all the characters. I love Monster’s incredibly complex cast, but in terms of relatability, a lot of them are in some way above the average; genius surgeon, wealthy family, super detective, criminal mastermind. 20th Century Boys is just about a buncha people with average jobs that get shoved into a heroic role and I have an easier time seeing myself in them. Especially as kids. Which is something else I need to talk about tbh!

Not only are they really well written as child characters, they also deal with a lot of issues as kids that I can remember having...so it’s really easy for me to sympathize. Like this kid was bullied...that kid just wants people to notice him...they had their special base destroyed..they’re all very human feeling. Also those little “kid issues” are written in such a way that even if they’re menial and silly to adults, there’s a lot of drama and pain behind them. And to kids that is incredibly painful so it really hits you.

20th Century GIRLS

Alright I gotta say something about the female cast of 20CB. For one thing there was a pretty wide variety, which is a nice improvement from having maybe 3 in Monster. Not only are at least 4 of them major players (one even the protagonist for a considerable amount of time) but they’re even in many cases the driving force. Sure the guys do a lot, but it’s the women who are really the go-getters and progress the plot. Like I could go into detail about this but just in general like....a lot of the things that happen in the story are either initiated or progressed by the ladies and that’s awesome tbh. 

Yoshitsune….

Alright special mention here to Yoshitsune because if there’s any character I didn’t expect to care so much about it’s him. First starting the manga I expected that he and Maruo would sort of get pushed into the role of “Kenji’s sidekicks” - but then we end up getting so much more out of both of them.

Yoshitsune in particular is a character I really relate to, much more than I thought I would. A lot of his issues as an adult and as a kid are/were things I really feel so his development (and especially the stuff we see in the virtual reality) was a real heavy hitter for me. I had to actually break from reading for a little after one scene in particular because it was way too real (...of course if I’d have kept reading I would have gotten the closure but yanno)

Outside of being relatable what I really love about Yoshitsune is that even though he’s not a fighter at all, and incredibly shy and weak, he still defends the group’s hideout, and is sort of the grit that keeps them together. In the big fight with the twins we really get to see that, but also in the summer of grade 6 he’d gone ahead and started to rebuild the secret base by himself (and then of course there’s all that he does as an adult). Idk I just really like characters like that, who maybe aren’t very strong or brave but go that extra mile to make sure the group is looked after.

Fave Moments

There’s a bunch of really good scenes here, but I think the ones that really stuck with me were the quieter scenes, without action and fighting. I mean Otcho being an absolute badass was a delight and all, but the scenes that really stuck with me were the ones without fighting.

The biggest one is when Yoshitsune’s group went to take over Friend’s headquarters and what looks like a giant all-out battle quickly just becomes a bunch of people walking calmly through the front doors because Yoshitsune just talks them all down from violence. It’s an incredibly powerful scene to me.

Kenji and Chouno facing down the police and just singing is also amazing (and really solidifies Kenji as a fave tbh). Definitely this is one of the more memorable lines of dialogue from Kenji. 

And the last one was when Sadakiyo talked to his old teacher and he remembered him...seeing the photograph was really sweet and sad and the closest I came to crying tbh

Jeez, okay well that’s all I can think to say right now….it was a really fun (long!!! But fun) ride with a very relatable cast and very fun plot. I wound up relating to the story a lot more than I thought I would (I went in more or less blind). I’ll probably re-read it sometime in the future, because I feel like it’s one of those stories that needs to be read more than once to really digest everything (a LOT happens and all) and I’ll have a different experience the second read through.

I just wish we could’ve seen Yukiji actually flip Otcho that one time she thought he was an enemy lmao

Maybe Billy Bat next….we’ll see

[ofgodsandllamas]

Me: [lying in bed browsing cc finds blogs] I'm just going to like all these posts so that when i wake up tomorrow I can go download them all and get them into my game! :D

Me 2 months later: WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA I'M LIKE 25 PAGES INTO MY LIKES AND I'VE GOTTA KEEP TRUCKING ALONG TO GET TO ALL THOSE CC POSTS AFKLJAFJKAFJKAJKFJK

[kiinghanalister]

I saw your post about everything leading up to Eddie's breakdown but what about the well he almost died in there and it was before he made buck Chris's legal guardian. That had to have been a terrible wake up call for him that if he died his son really wouldn't have anyone.

Ok first off, impressed you noticed it cause I totally didn't until I finished and i was like ehhhh I'm on my phone I'm not gonna scroll back up and insert it properly sooooo....

my thoughts:

the well is surprisingly really similar to the shooting. both a child in danger. but in this scenario the mom is actually worried for the kid and not actively trying to harm him. Eddie immediately jumps in when the mom has a visible hard time talking to reassure her son and then again is the first to jump in to say he'll go down and get the kid

(not me comparing how he wasn't there to jump in and take care of christopher when it became too much for shannon, nope)

That whole episode showed how much eddie loves christopher and how much he wanted to get back to him, but also with the will change, I don't think it really sunk into eddie that eddie didn't want to leave christopher. he was making sure that christopher would be taken care of so he wouldn't be alone, but in season 5 I think we are really seeing eddie come to the realization shit it's not just about leaving christopher alone. He's scared. he doesn't want to die, he doesn't want to leave christopher. He wants to stay.

He's choosing to stay after running away when Christopher was a baby.

And like, season 3 had him dealing with Shannon's loss in a very angry sense, and then coming to terms with officially officially being a single parent (blow ups at the guy at the handicap spot, angry at ms flores for the skateboarding incident, etc) and not having shannon anymore. Or at least the idea of her.

in season 4 we see him get a bit more comfortable in his role as a single parent and a bit more confident, and then WHAM 4x13 happens and things get thrown in his world again