all made up with nowhere to go

# For the second week running, the son of one of the regulars at work has tried to convince me to play Baldur's Gate 3.

He does not seem to realise he is fighting a losing battle*, but he is in his late teens/early twenties at best. I remember being that age and thinking everything I liked was hot shit and everyone else was wrong. He will learn (I hope; he does seem like a decent lad, so fingers crossed).

I also got into linguistic wrangling with another regular about whether being vegetarian means you can't eat fish (he seems to think it does, and maybe I shouldn't have said pescetarian to him because I don't know as he knew what I meant. Not because I think he's an idiot, but how often does anyone use that word?)


*I have no desire to play BG3 at all, let alone have anything capable of running it even if I did want to.

# A couple of weeks ago, I bought Jazz what I think is the best toy ever. As in she immediately played with it and hasn't stopped since (her radiator bed remains untouched).

Aldi were selling smooth wooden balls, so I got her one and she loves it! Although it does keep getting stuck in random places (so I have to fish it out), and it makes a loud SMACK! sound when it hits the living room door or the fireplace, as it is a solid piece of pine wood, but I'll deal with that because of how pleased I am that she'll play with it at all.

Best £2 I ever spent :D

(Talking of Jazz - I don't know if I mentioned the new bed I built? The last one was a divan, but the new one has space underneath it, and she likes it sit under there and tell me where she is. Also this one is closer to the floor, so it's easier for her to jump up on as well).

# itch.io has a bundle of 467 TTRPGs for just $5 (/£4.05 at the time of writing) in support of trans people in Ohio - I would not have found out about it but that a friend on fb posted about it, so I am passing this knowledge onto you, also.

I've always wanted to buy one of these bundles, but either not known about them, or not had the spare money. And now I do, and five bucks in nothing for all those games. (You also have the option of paying more if you want to).

(...and now I'm thinking about writing RPGs again...Although that's a vague lie - I was thinking about one I started but I have not finished just yesterday, before I even saw my friend's post).

# That's all I've got for now, I think.

u/KayTheToon asked r/movies what their reaction to The Matrix was if they watched it in cinemas in 1999, and, well, read the answers for yourselves. Or possibly not if you like The Phantom Menace because oooo boy the mentions of that are not so nice.

(I have mentioned this previously, but I didn't see it in the cinema (though I did see it in 1999), and I was not sober. I went home and was very paranoid for about a week afterwards).

(I have seen it in a cinema since, however, as detailed in a previous entry).

I meant to say thanks to everyone who left a comment on the "what do I add to Windows/Firefox" post. It was super useful, and I appreciate your help.

~

lassarina linked to this interview with Hitoshi Sakimoto, where he talks about composing the soundtrack for FFXII. It isn't very in-depth, but it is interesting all the same.

~

Some FFXIII thoughts:

I'm currently in Oerba and I hate the boss at the end of this section. Even more so than the one at end of the Palamecia, even though I one-shotted them without even trying a few weeks ago! This isn't even a humblebrag, this is my amazement that it even happened.

I can't believe it's taken me less than 35 hours to get here, because when I've played it before, it's felt like a much longer game than this. But since I've been playing it fairly consistently, that's likely why.

I am still using the Whistlewind Scarf + Axis Blade combo for Lightning, though I have upgraded neither thing since I got them on the Palamecia, because I still don't really understand how upgrading works (I'm never sure if you want overspill EXP or not). Maybe I should look a video up on youtube? I'm sure one exists. I ought to, as one thing the upcoming boss fight relies on is you having upgraded your weapons, in my experience.

I haven't really done any grinding, as I haven't felt the need to. I think I did a little bit to get Hope and Vanille necessary cure spells, but past that, nothing (though it might be a plan to get Vanille Curaja before this boss fight). It's felt easier playing than it has on past occasions, and I don't know if that's me being better at games than I used to be, or what it is. But I'm happy. I'm glad certain games don't feel like a battle to play, because I want to have fun when I'm playing games! That's why I play them!

I think that's all I really wanted to say; I thought I had something more in depth than this, but apparently not!

~

In other news, I finally downloaded chapters 1 and 2 of Deltarune, so I can get to that at some point in the future! Or I might just forget I've got it, and it will collect dust on my harddrive!

(Title is a paraphrased quote from a Peter Draws video, because I've been watching him all week. And it's true I do like pens. I like them a lot).

Anyway! Got my first covid vaccination on Thursday, and it all went fine! The worst part was a sore arm that started about an hour afterwards, but I was expecting that. I wasn't expecting sore lymph nodes, but that was a thing that happened, and they are still sore now. But as long as my immune system is doing its job, I don't mind. Also, no matter how irritating this may be, it's better than the alternative. WAY BETTER.

I also investigated the new Aldi after my vaccination. It was smaller than I was expecting, which is weird because it's not as small as Small Aldi in Burnley, yet it looks massive from the outside (I suppose it's like our Lidl, in that a lot of that space is actually warehouse). I spent less time in there than I thought I would, and so missed my bus home by mere minutes, and then had almost an hour to wait for the next one (because our bus timetable is sensible like that! [/sarcasm] ). So I walked about halfway home, and then caught the bus the rest of the way.

I'm going to bullet point other stuff, because I can't think how segue nicely between the topics, so:

1. I have updated my Redbubble for the first time in four years! Here is a link!

I got rid of all the older stuff and put in some of the newer things I've been doing. I did it out of curiosity, as I want to see how it does versus my old stuff, which never sold. I'm also going to make more of an effort to update it more frequently.

(I am still selling my own prints, but like I say, the RB update is kind of an experiment, and also they sell sizes I can't print/things I can't make, so there's that as well).

2. Here is my surprise birthday present! I've been whiffling about this for years (primarily because I've never spent £18 on a pen before), but I decided it would be a special present for my birthday. You may have already seen this if you follow my twitter, in which case it's not that much of a surprise.

( here is a pic of this expensive (for me) pen! )

3. I meant to link this when she started, but Ellen from Outside Xtra has been playing Dark Souls for the very first time, with help from Luke! Here's the first episode, feat shenanigans with the Taurus Demon! (She has, at the time of writing, just beaten the Capra Demon, meaning she is currently at the same point that I got to before I decided to give up).

4. I've been drawing a whole bunch for the past week, in part thanks to randomly discovering Peter Draws (as previously noted), and trying figure out how he draws. I don't know if what I'm doing is any good, but I'm enjoying doing it, and that's what counts! (Also as much as getting fountain pen ink all over my hands annoys me*, I kind of like that, too?)

Some of the things I've drawn will be going up on my sketchblog next week, so \o/ check that out if you're interested.

5. I have nothing else to say (that I can think of), so I will finish this here!

~

*I don't like having "gunk" on my hands, but at least ink is not very gunky as substances go. Unless it's been sitting around becoming gunky, as it sometimes does, in which case, ewwwww. Do Not Want.

1. I'm sitting on my hands not to buy new pens/inks, EXCEPT I do technically have £14 of Xmas money left over, so I could if I wanted to!

I mean, I can't afford one of the fountain pens I want, but there's other things I want besides those. Things I have been wanting longer!

2. I am this close to finishing Royal Assassin! I tried to get it done last night, but my brain was just like, nope!, so I didn't. I've got like, forty pages? If that? Having a bit of déjà vu again with the current situation Fitz has found himself in so again, wondered if I had a look while mum was reading it.

Assassin's Quest is EVEN LONGER! *cries*

3. I scanned some stuff I have been doing recently! I have updated my sketchblog, and it will start auto-updating from there for a couple of weeks or so (hopefully by which time I will have done some more stuff!)

I want to make some prints of some of the things (and some older things), but need to do some tests first. I'm sure my printer can handle it, but it's always good to do a trial run.

4. I am debating making a patreon.

I used to have one, but I never launched it because I felt like I didn't deserve it, so I eventually deleted it. I am a bit leery about it because of how the owners have treated smaller creators in the past, and also because I don't know if anyone will sign up to it. I know people like my work, but do they like it enough to give me money for it? I don't know.

I also don't know what I would do about patreon only stuff.

(I do also have a kofi page but I'm not really sure how that's supposed to work. I know when I picked it, I did because it seemed to be less pressure than a patreon but now I don't know! And also because they don't take anything from the money you receive, where patreon do).

5. I think I have finally figured out an acceptable (to me) way to make a zine! I know I have been going on about this for literal years at this point, and I keep not ending up with an end product (except for the time I did and then didn't put it up for sale because of crushing self-esteem problems). But this time I am determined!

I even figured out a way to do it without having to think about double-sided printing (which I did figure out, but that was months ago now, and I've forgotten what I learnt). So yay! Just got to put it all together and see if it works!

6. Hope you are all okay and looking after yourselves. And if you're not okay, I offer internet hugs, and I hope you feel a bit better soon.

This Reddit link on critique of FFX is interesting.

I found it while looking for stuff about swapping sphere grid paths.

~

Anyway, Meanwhile, In Ivalice!

Obviously, I got a OMGWTF ENTITE as soon as I stepped back onto the Ozmone Plain, because of course I did. I don't even know what to google for to find out the mechanics for their being generated (I know I said I didn't really want to know, but I actually sort of do. I kind of find stuff like this interesting).

And, of course, I ran away.

I also saw a lightning elemental with protect cast on it, and since we are still not capable of dealing with those, never mind their big brothers, I again ran away.

( Read more... )

Which brings us nicely to Old Archades, which means Draklor Laboratories next! OH YAY.

<--- The Stilshrine of Miriam & Judge Bergan | Archades and Draklor to Giruvegan --->

The other morning, I woke up with a burning urge to write. I felt really creative! I couldn't wait to get words on a page!

...And I ended up writing, like, half a page of the sad teenagers story. And that was all I did all day, and then I got mad at myself because I felt I'd been unproductive, and that I'd wasted my urge to write.

The next day I did nothing, not even half a page. I said to mum that I thought the problem was that I didn't want to work on any of the three stories I had on the go, as it were (sad teenagers, human abominations, and magical girls). Which is true, I didn't. So she said, "Do you have any others you can work on? Or could you think of a new idea?"

and I, in a horrified tone said, "NO! OF COURSE NOT! I SHOULD WORK ON THESE!"

Except that, of course, I see a lot of writing advice that says if you're getting nowhere with one thing, go and do another so you don't end up hating the original thing.

So I sat down and thought about something I have admittedly wanted to write for some years now. Which would be something based on Welsh myth. The only problem is that I am not so familiar with Welsh mythology as I want to be (I know way more about Irish but that's to do with contents of mythology books and stuff I read in my late teens). So I did some googling! And aside from anything else, it cleared up a mystery I've been puzzling over for years, which is the story about the lady from Llyn Y Fan Fach. I have half-remembered this story since I was a kid (but was aware I didn't make it up) but didn't really know what to look for, so I'm glad I found that.

And I read some other bits and pieces, and I knew what I wanted to name one of the characters, so I noodled around, and now I think I have a thing! I even sort of have an idea of what will happen in the story, but I am unsure about how to go about it. I need to think up some more characters to play about with, because currently I only have the main character, and the person telling the story, and that is not enough.

(I like making characters, as my book of RPG characters will tell you, so it's not like it's even a hardship. If I could concentrate on it for long enough, I would totally be one of those people with five billion OCs. But I can't. I don't know how other people do it).

Anyway, TL;DR version is I have another story even though it's the last thing I need.

~

Couple of links you may or may not find interesting?

Persistent Melancholy: An Examination of Unifying Musical Gestures in Nier - I need to go back and reread this, as it's got some really interesting stuff in it. HOWEVER BEWARE OF MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE GAME if you decide to read it and you haven't played it.

Hollywood in Translation: A Look at Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which is about the differences between the EN and JP scripts for said film, written by nintendoh
(I found this REALLY interesting!)

The Case For Character Creator: The Game - which is exactly what it sounds like and DUDE I WANT THIS THING THAT DOES NOT EXIST.

Why the Raven Cycle isn't getting any diversity cookies from me - which details the problems I had with the racism in TRC but couldn't articulate well enough at the time.

My brother brought my nephew to visit. I showed him some of my dice, since one of the words we taught him to say when he was learning to talk was "dodecahedron" and, well, that's what a d12 is. He likes my glittery dice, and I think the d20 is his favourite. He wanted to play a dice game with me, but I didn't know any, so then he sulked, till I said I'd get my cards and we could play Snap. He was more interested in seeing that some of the cards had the same suit and numbers than he was matching pairs, but he is only four, so I can't really blame him.

I STG when he's older I'm going to play tabletop RPGs with him. Obviously I won't if he isn't interested, but if he is, I will. But I think four is way too young for any of that right now.

So I'm going to learn a couple of dice games instead, and see what he thinks of those instead.

~

Some links you may find helpful:

A whole bunch of useful links that dingsi has compiled.

Patron Saint Bluebell by ursulav, which is not a short story, but just a post that you might like to read.

Also, I have retweeted, and will continue to retweet useful links and stuff on my twitter rootsandbones, so if you scroll down my timeline, you'll find them. There are also some nice/cute animal pictures, and some comics by people I like/know.

Random bunch o' links:

Tropes That Will Never Happen/Too Universal - sorry for linking you to TVT, but this list gave me a good gigglesnort or two.

Play video games online, in your browser - much like the internet archive. Except the sound for Puzzle Bobble* works on this for me.
(Be warned, however, that some of the games contain questionable content. But there's Puzzle Bobble! Which is why I'm mentioning it at all).

*What later became Bust A Move.

Play Bejeweled 2 online - Popcap probably has links to their other games on here - I know Plants vs. Zombies is available to play online, but I daren't go looking because I'll end up sinking hours into Zuma if it's there, I know I will.

And a music rec:

AYOSHUTDUFF - TALE (soundcloud link; you can download it there)

I just really like this (it's an instrumental).

And a (couple of) video recs because Tetris:

Tetris Variations by Kyle Landry - Synthesia video
Kyle himself performing this piece (which. I have never seen someone play the piano this fast before. It is amazing and kind of scary).

From today (23rd) to Friday (28th) of September, there is a 30% off sale on scarves, gloves (wrist warmers), or hats (or sets of any combo)!

Go forth and buy stuff!

Aquarides Creations

Feel free to spread the word as you choose!