lizardjay

I've decided to start writing up episode-by-episode thoughts about Gundam since I enjoyed doing that for Utena so much... the problem here is that I'm already 2/3 done with the OG Gundam series, but such is life :D so I will be starting at episode 29.

My coworker recently came back from a trip to Japan and brought me some origami paper! Practically speaking there is no real difference between this paper and stuff I can get online here, but all the color names are in Japanese so it's good practice, and it was very nice of him ^_^

To repay him for the gift, I just made him this duck! That's what this post is for: showing off the duck. I think it turned out really nice! I hope he'll like it.



Pattern from Jo Nakashima on YT. I've been using his channel for years; the patterns are the right level of challenging for me. Though there were a couple steps in here (like forming the head.....) that sent me into deep confusion and despair for a minute or two.

People with lots of icons (or any number, really): do you have any kind of philosophy on what icons to have in your collection, or which ones you like to use in what situations? I want to build up my collection but I'm getting choice paralysis :D

(I'm using my Tsuyu icon for this post, as my designated Thinking icon :D)

This question is prompted by me getting back into coloring manga panels for icons... it's really enjoyable! I'm catching up on the HxH manga (in some ways futilely, since it's looking like Togashi will never finish this arc, but it's still fun).

Here's a Kurapika from chapter 364. I find characters and creatures with big eyes and no mouths SO cute. I mean, look at him! As soon as I saw him I had to do something with this panel.



And here they are at icon size. I'm torn between my options! I guess it depends on the emotion I intend to convey with it. My range of emotions in my current icon set is kind of limited. Do I want innocent curiosity, or 'you've activated an interest of mine'?



Nobody look too closely at my shading. I don't know anything, I'm just here to have fun.

This time of year is always such a slog. I keep forgetting things that only happened days ago, and yet winter is so long?? You'd think if none of it registers it would go faster....

But anyway!! I had the day off due to snow! So here is a post. Be warned: there are a lot of pictures in it :D



This pic is as of 4PM, it's been snowing since noon, and it's supposed to keep going until 6AM O_O

Contents:

1. pseudo-art and photos (including cats)
2. reading
3. TV/anime
4. (bought) stuff
5. AMVs
6. RL
7. food

( Read more... )

I gotta catch up on DW and also have some posts I want to make, but instead....

Have y'all seen Doechii?????





Idk when I first listened to Doechii, last year sometime maybe? I have a couple of her 2020 songs in my playlist. But her latest album from this August is just.... SO GOOD.... and honestly both of these videos are PERFORMANCES. She's got the stage presence and the skill!!! She is so good!!!!!

Writing up this post I got sucked into watching the Tiny Desk concert again /o\

(Watching her cut out all the profanity in the Colbert performance is so funny :D)

Me, August 6:

I'm REALLY hoping that I won't regret posting this before the fight actually finishes. I can see it now: the next episode will have incredibly beautiful cinematic shots of Uraraka and Toga fighting in the sea spray with the light of the setting sun, and new backstory flashbacks for both of them...

The specific details were wrong, but. YEAH. THAT HAPPENED.

I don't REGRET posting and finishing the video; I think it's great! It's very much a... not a cliffhanger exactly, but a "standing at the precipice" type of ending. It's not ruined by the later continuation of events.

.... But now I wanted to include those events!! So I pretty quickly decided to do a version 2. Conveniently, I had cut out one verse/chorus from the song, so I just had to add that back in to make more room. The beginning is solid and doesn't need to be rearranged. But then I needed to put in some serious thought about how to work the rest of it. An extra minute is a LOT of time. And the whole structure is different, moments which were previously in the climax of the video are now just in the second verse/chorus.

It was also a good opportunity to fix some things that were weak in the original video. I think I really built in some new strengths with the edits. But I also introduced some new weaknesses.

Anyway: HERE'S THE AMV.



And because of who I am, I made a comparison video. Do not feel compelled to watch this unless you have genuine interest. I used the final chorus of the original AMV twice in here; once where I used the footage in the final video, and once in its original position in the final chorus.

Busy time lately...
( RL: house! dental :( )
Otherwise, I've started Hunter x Hunter (INCREDIBLE FUN! I Love Gon) and rereading Cyteen by C J Cherryh (such a good book but it's 680 pages long; on the other hand I've been flying through it and I'm almost done after two weeks). I'm behind two episodes on BNHA and need to get back into it :(

KITTY CAT PICTURES! IN THE NEW HOUSE!

( perhaps the most beautiful cats? )

To finish off my uncharacteristically frequent Utenaposting (for now...), I present the Definitive Catalog of Every Miki Stopwatch Moment Ever, as promised.



... I see that my thumbnail is being cut off on the bottom. This is hell. I worked hard on that thing.

I'm hoping this doesn't put me on a slippery slope of making theory videos; that's not who I am! But somehow nobody else had made this before I got to it. As far as I could find, nobody had even made a comprehensive list in one place. And despite my hatred of 'video only' resources (dear everyone who puts info in a video, IT COULD BE AN ARTICLE INSTEAD!!), I do think video is the best format here.

Do I have any conclusions or theories now that I've done the extensive research? .... not really. My thoughts are still marinating in my mind. But now I have everything collected in one place for my convenience :D and for anyone else who finds it, of course. I know I was searching "miki stopwatch", "utena stopwatch", etc several times and finding NOTHING. I don't really promote my videos so idk if people will find it, but if they do I hope it's useful!

At long last. Utena* is done.

*Not the movie yet, I’m watching that next weekend.

Overall: There are many things in Utena I don't yet understand, but it's not a CONFUSING show. I feel like people present it as SO esoteric and hard to understand, and at its core, the story.... it's not!

(I'm gonna have to digest the last several episodes for a while though.)

Also, yeah, it’s as good as people hype it up to be. IT’S GOOD.

I recently discovered that my library has MANGA (and comics, etc) AVAILABLE ONLINE, with no limits or anything. I've honestly never been a big reader of manga; when I do, I'm reading like 80 chapters at once. But after checking out a few things, I think I should read manga more casually!

All my Utena blogging has gotten me into the mood to post about all sorts of stuff. I don't expect it to last very long but we'll see :D