Max likes to crochet and she is a crochet animal master. Her most exceptional creations are penguins and dolphins and because she is an Australian enthusiast (Avery prays for her friend's life and bad-decision making skills every day; this girl wants to LIVE in Australia-if she can't own it, she'll live there instead; compromise is key, according to her), she also loves making kangaroos and koalas. Given Xander's love for trying new things and spending quality time with his girlfriend, one time he suggests they have a crochet date. She eagerly agrees and she finds a simple crochet pattern for him to try and despite some mishaps, he comes out of it mostly unscathed and with a cute dinosaur. From then on, it becomes an activity that they like doing together, during a movie, on a rainy day, in the library at Max's college, on the plane, etc. It also ends up being a favorite habit for Xander when he needs to destress but his anxiety is sometimes so bad he makes two creations in two hours (yes, that quick, even if he's very sleep-deprived).

The Star Beast

Am I excited for the 60th? Eh... I'm just glad to have Doctor Who to watch after a year of nothing.

Why in the world were my Disney+ subtitles set to Chinese?

Donna my girl. You are the only reason for me to be excited. This whole post has a lot of salt throughout.

Also, I don't know how I feel about the exposition to the camera thing. Twelve did it better. Interesting opening sequence. And I think I have said I like the retro logo. Ok Rachel Talalay directed. That's promising. Those robots in the background felt cyberman-esque. Ughhhhh I have so many thoughts about the choice to have Donna name her daughter Rose. Ugh. I like that the running gag of Donna not seeing the chaos for random mundane reasons continues. Glad she's still roasting him. Ok if this is supposed to be a NEW Doctor, I don't like him saying Allons-y. Please. New catchphrase. The same face doesn't have to mean the same personality. Plus I don't know French but isn't saying "Let's - Allons-y!" redundant? Ok shoutout to Nerys that's fun. Shaun's a good man. I'm very glad we get to see more of him now since he was a bit of a non-character in End of Time. OH GOOD UNIT IS REALLY BACK PROPERLY. Wait do I remember seeing pictures of Kate in promos... I was about to ask why the ship was right side up if it crashed. Ok. It landed. God I've forgotten Donna's mom's name but I'm really glad to see she listened to the Doctor and shows Donna appreciation now. I was just about to ask how long it'd been. Because End of Time aired in 2009/10 but the whole timeline of the RTD era was messed up. So does that mean that Journey's End was technically 2008? God let me not try to make sense of this right now. God I hate this Meep thing with a passion. I hate its eyes. So much. Ah. Nightmare fuel. I don't like the sonic reverting back to be so similar to Nine/Ten's either. It would have been funner if he was using Thirteen's. Plus he should have been in Thirteen's outfit but I've already complained about that for a year. Cowards. "Off you pop" I wonder if that's a reference to Clara in the 50th. What is that the Time Vortex or something? Does Rose crochet these toys? Love that. (For the record I got nothing against Rose at all I'm just mad she was named Rose for pure fan pandering purposes.) Ok now I see why it was hiding in toys in the promo. Sylvia you are totally right to be angry at the Doctor this time around. "Oh wow he's so cute" no, it's nightmare fuel. GOOD JOB SYLVIA. He deserves that slap. Oh poor Shaun. He's such a good man though. Sees the chaos, sees a literal monster, and decides to compliment his mother-in-law's cooking. Good job. "I loved that man." Aw. Me too. "He's not dead." "You idiot." Love it. Kate came in to help take care of Wilf? Oh. Ohhh. My heart. "You've got two hearts? So do I." "You've got what." Oh Donna. Hmm so the hypnotized soldiers are not on the same side as the Wrath... I don't know how I feel about this sonic force field thing but ok. Resonating concrete. I'll accept that reference because it's about Nine. "Or we've got things very, very wrong." Yep I agree that Meep is probably evil and as nightmarish as the Meep looks. A living sun. I'll accept that reference because it's about Martha. Please RTD, reference something OTHER than your era though for this 60th anniversary of the whole show. SEE I TOLD YOU IT WAS A NIGHTMARE CREATURE. "With your weird child." Ah so Beep the Meep is a transphobe too. SEE. SEEEEEE. I WAS RIGHT TO HATE THIS THING. "I'm just passing by" Ok I always liked that line. God I hate this thing. SHE SAID THE DOCTOR. Ok these random Winter Soldier trigger words would have meant more had they actually be put into the show at some point prior to this. Because I have absolutely no memory of any of this besides the repeated "binary binary binary." Donna Noble is descending. Fixing up all the burning caverns like that is nonsense. OK ROSE. OK.

Ok no wait now I'm mad again. At first when the show was in promotions the assumption was that Donna named Rose subconsciously. Because we weren't sure if Yasmin was playing a trans character or not. Then when this episode started I was like "Ok so Rose picked the name Rose by random when she transitioned and it's a coincidence. Fine I'll accept that." but didn't actually put it in the post. And now NO. SHE HAS SOME OF THE METACRISIS IN HER. SO SHE NAMED HERSELF AFTER ROSE. I'm mad all over again. Just let it go RTD2!

Ok the Keep Out on the shed might be a reference to Twelve's sign on his Tardis. Fine. Fine. I'll take that. Glad they didn't zoom in on the Adipose before that. that would have been too obvious. Because the toy is just straight up an Adipose. Also happy 10th birthday to Owen the Adipose plushie I crocheted around this same time. "We're binary." "She's not." "Because the Doctor's male" "And female" "And neither. And more." Ok ok confirmation of the Doctor being non-binary ok. This has been a rollercoaster of me being angry and me being happy. "My father would be impressed, I have no higher compliment" That is VERY true there is not a higher compliment than that. Oh is the episode going to be dedicated to Bernard... Oh and we're getting that Toymaker dude later right? And Rose makes toys. Ok I see why this random Old Who villain is relevant to this story. "Shame you're not a woman anymore, cause she would have understood." True. So they can just... let the time lord energy go... sure I guess? OK THE SIGN BY THE ROBOT THINGS SAYS CYBERDOG. I DIDN'T SEE THAT BEFORE. THEY WERE MEANT TO LOOK LIKE CYBERMEN. I do like Ten being insulted by Shaun saying "But not him." since I do somewhat headcanon Ten as being a bit in love with Donna.

Ok at this point I realized that Tumblr had stopped autosaving this draft around when we saw the Adipose. So let's see if I can even post this last half.

I don't mind this Tardis design. Kind of like One's mixed with Eleven's. Ok the set itself is actually impressive. I like it. Oh Donna. Ew I do not like the breathy Doctor Who theme nope.

No dedication to Bernard at the end. Did we already get something dedicated to him? Or maybe they'll just dedicate the episode he's actually in.

As an episode, it was cute and fun. I think RTD2 needs to take some of his own advice and let it go, specifically the Rose thing.

As a 60th anniversary special... Ok I was glad this episode wasn't just purely RTD era callbacks every other moment. But still, it's an anniversary special. Give me more about all 60 years. Or at least the very least more about the Moffat and Chibnall eras. I guess we'll have to see since all 3 episodes are supposed to be anniversary specials. But for the episode airing closest to the anniversary, I'm disappointed that it didn't feel like an anniversary episode.

Edit: I went to check the cast and at the time it had a 9.2 on IMDB and was above Blink as highest rated episode. It's now down to 8.2 which is more reasonable. But god I'm annoyed at the way some fans have just eaten up all this pandering.

I’ve only seen love directed towards RtDLDX, and while I think that’s lovely, I’ve always had several issues with it that I haven’t seen many else talk about. So that’s what I wanna do… talk about it. This was originally gonna be in the form of an essay, but I wrote the first draft half asleep, there is no saving that, and I think more of a point form, individualised analysis would get my point across better. This also means there isn’t going to be much for positives. Pretty much anything I don’t mention should be assumed I am either fine or happy with. Despite that though, I do still think the negatives are enough to cause me to not enjoy RtDLDX, at least not as much as I wish I could. But enough preamble.

New White Wafers Dialogue

Let’s start off with the two least impactful gripes. In fact, I’m just gonna get this one out of the way before getting onto the actual topic. Ability Stars look so much worse now. I get they’re 3D models now, but man, they just look so flat. Where are my RtDL Ability Star fans at? Okay, now to actually begin. All the other changes to Story Mode are great, but wow, I do not like his “Such Easy Targets” line. It feels like a betrayal of his facade. I’ve said in the past that RtDL has my favourite Magolor, which is why this stings. This isn’t like any of his other new/changed dialogue, while his Extra Mode dialogue also stands out, it still feels closer to how he acts. Not to mention, this is him finally being honest. He’s allowed to drop the facade here, it makes sense. But in White Wafers? I just can’t see him saying that. In the original, he does come off as shady, and he does mess up his story, but in a completely different way. I feel a similar slip up is when he calls Kirby a Hero in Cookie Country. At that time, he isn't supposed to know that. He also changes his story from “Just Crash Landing” to “Being Attacked by Landia.” Those are his brand of slip ups, I can’t imagine he’d mess up that badly as to say “Man I love scheming. Oops I mean crocheting ☺️” It’s also a lot more relaxed than what I expect from him. I always interpreted RtDL Magolor as having this stress to his dialogue. His ship is in shambles and he needs to keep up a lie. He still goofs around, but it’s in a completely different tone, it still has undertones of panic. This however, reads more like one of his upgrade lines in the Epilogue. Some may find that appropriate, but Magolor is never written consistently, and trying to add connections only makes things worse. Also, forgot to mention, this is just a straight up spoiler. Sure, the game is 11 years old, but Forgotten Land introduced so many new Kirby fans, people who know nothing about the series, to reveal your biggest twist, especially in a way that feels like a betrayal to the character you’ve written, I just can’t understand the idea behind this change. Because what is the point? I keep asking myself this and I genuinely can’t comprehend it.

Extra Mode Changes

Extra Mode got a glow up in RtDLDX, that’s obvious from the first stages, so then why do I find myself preferring the original? It’s consistent. 1-1 is probably the most fun I’ve had with RtDL in years, so to be greeted by that, only to be met with the exact same mode I’ve played countless times, it’s crushing. It feels like it was set up to get you excited, just to pull the rug from under you. I could get it if it was deliberately there to convince you to buy the game, but if you’ve made it this far, you already own it. So why? While this inconsistency ruins the mode for me, I can’t help but have a more, sympathetic outlook. The original mode is a clear sign this game was rushed, while most of the game, you wouldn’t even be able to tell. I don’t know if those who worked on it were happy with how Extra Mode turned out. Maybe that’s presumptuous of me, but DX was their chance to fix this, but they didn’t. If it isn’t obvious, I think Extra Mode was once again rushed. 1-1, while maybe a bit unfair, still felt like there was love put into it, as much love as the bosses. And 2-1 and 3-1 also got noticeable attention, but much less. The fact the first levels got this attention, makes me feel like they were just developing the levels they could, I can’t explain it as well as I’d like, but it still stands out to me that way. But, while I appreciate the effort, it only makes it feel more unfinished than the original. I’m just so sad about this because this was their only chance to fix the original, it just stands out compared to all the other Extra Modes from the games after. Even something simple like letting Player 1 be Dedede, Meta or Bandee would have done so much for this mode. And, as I’ll soon say, Magolor Epilogue does nothing to circumvent  this. Magolor Epilogue Part 1 - Gameplay That’s right, a two parter! This is gonna be hard though, as I don’t know where my biases begin, and where they end. While this is obviously all subjective, I still would like some ground to stand on. So, I’m gonna start with what I like and what I think works. Let’s start with the bosses. Besides the marketing, which really should have its own section, they’re pretty cool! They innovate on the original bosses, Electicky Dooter is my favourite boss from this game. But it does suck they aren’t more original, or the fact the minibosses are still the same ones from Story and Extra Mode. It just makes the fact all the world bosses were spoiled for us hurt all the more. Next are Ordeal Doors. I love them. They work around the required upgrades so perfectly. Being able to know what the player will have means they can make memorable and fun stages. The regular stages are the exact inverse of this. They’re bland, forgettable, they have to work around the fact that you may never upgrade your abilities. I often see people praise the freedom the upgrade system provides, but I only see the inverse. It’s restrictive. The most the regular stages can do is play around with the boss abilities. However, those are often so weak, done so much better in the Ordeal Stages, or aren’t intuitive for movement that they can’t stand out. The combo system is much more interesting as a mechanic, and the game can properly play around with it, but the upgrades encapsulate everything I dislike about how it feels to play. No, everything I dislike with this whole Epilogue. Magolor Epilogue Part 2 - Tone and Story

I get it’s Kirby, but Kirby has done good and serious stories, so then why is Magolor Epilogue such tonal whiplash. The intro and tutorial capture it perfectly. Magolor almost died, he basically did. He lost his friends, his magic, he’s alone. Good thing he can think uppity thoughts! That’s unfair, I love his upgrade dialogue, I don’t want them to take away the humour, but there has to be some sort of middle ground! Make it clear his jokes are a form of coping, make the pause screens talk about his thoughts rather than vagueing towards Grand Doomer being the final boss 4 times in a row. Give us a look at how he actually feels!!! This is worse in the ending, we never see him actually feel guilt for what he’s done. We’re just told he’s redeemed now, we’re told that on a pause screen that’s not even accessible for 30 seconds!! It’s not even a case of show don’t tell, because they don’t even tell us anything! What I find worse is that he doesn’t even have to confront Kirby to apologise, not really, he literally gets to start living out his dream, stalling until the whole situation blows over until he just gets to show up on Pop Star, somehow, where there is barely any tension left. He gets off easy, he dies, and he gets rewarded for it. LITERALLY TOO!! I’ve never liked his Star Allies moveset. It was so clearly busted, that it felt like he’s stronger without the Master Crown. So in response to this, they canonise this moveset and it’s even more busted. It all comes back to the fact he’s constantly rewarded for his betrayal. He loses nothing. And it’s infuriating, because how am I supposed to expect him to be redeemed when he didn’t have to suffer for anything he did. Sure, he cries at the end of the mode, too bad we never know how he’s feeling anywhere else. They didn’t even answer how he got back to Pop Star, instead answering how he got to the Dream Kingdom. Idk about anyone else, but I just kinda assumed he got there with the Lor, the “real” answer doesn’t feel satisfying at all. He doesn’t even do anything interesting in the Clash games, nothing, not unless we get another Clash sequel. I just, I just wanted him to apologise to Kirby, but instead, it feels like HAL is doing everything in their power to make sure he doesn’t. The worst part is that I’m still hoping for that Clash sequel, I’m waiting for them to execute what they’ve set up, but I just don’t think it’s happening. I just wish I could see what everyone else sees in Epilogue, but I just can’t.

Merry Magoland

I guess I should wrap this up with Magoland. It’s not that bad, but I think it suffered the most from feeling slapped on with no real purpose. I like the Minigames, but I’m more talking about the park itself. I don’t like how it looks. It might just be because I’m not a fan of Magolor’s ego, or at least never saw it being this kind of ego, but it doesn’t work here for me. From what we’ve seen of Magolor’s work in the past, it’s always had this sort of child like aspect to it, like it was made with crayons and cardboard or building blocks. It created a nice aesthetic, albeit, a rather disconnected one, Drum Dash and Dream Collection look nothing alike. But to see them completely ignore what those two set up for a boring DisneyLand parody? Especially one played so positively? Idk, maybe I’m expecting too much asking for another “Capitalism is Bad'' metaphor, but still, Disney is very well known for being a garbage company so???? It’s funny how a place meant to look as innocent as possible is immersion breaking for being as innocent as possible. In reality, it’s not that bad, Manager Magolor acts nothing like Story Mode Magolor, but that’s a consistent thing with all his appearances so whatever I’ve grown to accept it. I just wish Dream Collection and Drum Dash got more love. Especially since Last Land of all things was referenced back in Dream Buffet, I still love that btw. Some sort of visual link might have helped, but even without them, I just think gaudy isn’t Magolor’s style? Like it totally is, but this brand of it doesn’t feel like him. However, I don’t write for him, idk his “true” personality, his “true” taste, maybe he likes Glitter and I can’t stop him. It just serves to make the new stuff feel out of place juxtaposed to the more natural, magical and mechanical settings of Story Mode.

And I guess that’s it, I never want to do this kinda thing again. Being this negative, although my true feelings, is just exhausting. I hope no one agrees with my issues, but if you do, hope it’s nice to see someone talk about it lol. I’m not giving up on this game though, I want to come back in a few months and see how my feelings have changed. I doubt it’ll fix everything, but I hope I can gain a new appreciation for this game, critiques and all. I guess thanks for reading as well, it means a lot to know people care about what I have to say.

Aside from looking and feeling drained, I've had a nice week.

Still enjoying chilling with Stargate Atlantis even listened to a couple of episode commentaries (the writers have early aughts typical broey vibes though so that's off-putting).

Found a pair of shoes to wear this late autumn as my "vintage" vans mannaz fell apart. After I'd talked about the difficulty of finding shoes that fit me and how many I'd tried that didn't work out, Mum dug up a pair of hiking boots she'd forgotten to send back to dad and said he'd always had the same problem: wide feet with height just behind the toe area as the arch starts. Apparently getting work shoes for his teacher job that didn't hurt was quite a quest. They fit great except for the length so I went online, found the same brand "Queshua" and looked at their hiking shoes of the updated but same series/range. Ordered a male and female model in my size. Only the "guy" shoes fit and they don't have any spring in them like sports shoes do but sports shoes often end up too narrow. I can't risk buying them without going to a physical shop or doing a dozen returns. Queshua from decathlon have a free return from your post box and refund policy. Fantastic.

So basically, I'm elated to have been able to toss out the vans and stick the pastel gradient laces into my new all terrain, waterproof trainers. I'm going to look at their winter models for colder weather. It's reassuring to know there is a brand that tends to fit. I'm hoping to try the thrift store on the outskirts of town one day when the carer isn't too busy but that could be a while (why thrift? Because I generally don't fully know a shoe's problems before I've 'road tested' them) .

I also tried crochet again (every few years I try to knit or crochet from tutorials and it hasn't gone great, you all know I can't think in 3D, so like for the keyboard, it has to be muscle memory and mnemonics) This time I had two different youtube tutorials on half speed and could sort of 'get it' but for the life of me could not properly hold the yarn in the left hand. Mum was around so I sheepishly asked what I was doing wrong. Her first answer was "well have you practiced?" 🙄 (she forgets I'm not the 7 year old who gives up as soon as the dopamine runs out or gets distracted by shiny - i mean i am but I've learned to go back to practicing even if I have to make myself angry or use bribes and limits.) I dutifully produced my series of messed up lines and sat down to show her and she went "oh OK! you're doing it wrong, Here's how auntie Grace taught me" and wrapped the yarn around my little finger, using the middle finger as the main yarn holder and index+thumb to pinch the crochet. Then I had to leave because she kept telling me to "relax my shoulders relax your hands RELAX", I love her but I do not control the muscles when trying to practice a new hard (for me) skill for an audience.

That hands on tip was what made it actually 'take' this time even though I might end up using the ring finger instead. I haven't had much time to practice and made quite a mess of my first attempts at rows with a 3 ply yarn.

Today I was able to proudly show off a 5*30 stitch parallelogram (still haven't got the tension down) of thin cord, it took three tries... but not bad. I'm really hoping I'll be able to grok some more stitches and have something to keep the hands busy that's less taxing on my shoulder. I also need to ask her about auntie Grace, she's probably part of the deaf adult community mum grew up in.

Slowly working towards listing more dolls. You get stuck on junk decisions about whether to bundle, whether to dress them or one of the photos is too blurry and the whole thing stops because there's a missing step or piece. Plan derailed.

I've got incoming which helps with motivation: Elle eedee!!! I didn't click with her the first time then really missed her but now I know how I want to do her eyes. Twilight teens grey for Nicole Steel head (aliexpress 11.11 sales $5) and white.

A Catrine and pink haired Howleen. Catrine is a design I just love and was always put off by the yellowing. Now that I know more about straight peroxide bleaching, I really want another try. I also want to see what happens to that lilac turned grey hair and if it fries or just turns lighter grey, she'll be bald. Their cleaning will be top priority in general but not top on the project list as I have Barbie Marnie who needs just a few more lines of hair to be perfect, a 1/6th BJD to string (need to practice rotary tool sanding and buffing on a damaged barbie before I touch her resin) and probably switching out Jewel Richie's eyes, they're beautiful with the green shimmer details but the visible bevel on the 'baddie' eyes makes them hard to photograph and distracts from looking like a cohesive face. Oooh I might try a line of black acrylic paint first to see if that fixes the issue.

Voilà, big blurb. Not many photos they're all on the desktop. The dogs are happy and well, Lily is a bouncy frolicking 15yo, Talia is learning to be less afraid of the big world and other dogs specifically Gargouille and Elliot.

Talia also threw up in almost every room in the house today, with for her grand finale some raw hide bone she swallowed whole to concentrate on hoarding the other two from Lily. Chihuahuas either have Tardis stomachs or they are mostly stomach because the dimensions of all that came up don't make sense.

Highlights were sharing popcorn with sis and mum on Sunday just chitchatting. Long hot bath to warm legs cold from the inside out. Stunning sights as the sun comes out from behind the mountains:

WIP Wednesday: Gauntlet Socks Version 2!

Well, it's WIP Wednesday here, And I'm back with a new(ish) project - the second iteration of the long-forgotten Gauntlet Socks!

The last time I'd looked at this pattern, they were still languishing with one sock done (the project bag is deep in a storage box, and I -will- fish it out and finish it at one point)!  But, I had all my project notes, so I've been submitting these socks to magazine calls and such when they fit the theme, and, they've been accepted!  They'll be for Cast On Magazine (which is part of The Knitting Guild Association!) This is also exciting, as Cast On is ok with me posting my Work-In-Progress - so you get to see at least some of these socks come together!  Interestingly enough, my gauge is noticeably different between my original sample and the new sample - yes, it's new yarn and different needles, but usually I don't see this drastic a difference!  So, I did have to re-do my first attempt at these socks when it became clear that something wasn't quite right, but I think I've got it now!   

Yarn is Lichen and Lace's beautiful "Beach Glass" colourway on their 80/20 Sock Yarn (80% Superwash Merino, 20% Nylon)  I got this yarn for free as part of working with Cast On Magazine (this is actually quite common when you're publishing knit or crochet designs with magazines, you'll often get the yarn for free!) Needles are a set of 2.5 mm (US 1.5)  *Knit Picks Nickle Plated Fixed Circular Needles. (This, and any other link with an * is an affiliate link, meaning I get a commission or reward if you make a purchase - thanks for helping to pay rent if you do!) I was initially skeptical about Knit Picks Needles, as I'd heard a few horror stories, but honestly, these are pretty solid needles for the price!  I've paid more for needles that are not nearly as good - the cable is probably the most flexible cable I've tried out so far, they're working great for Magic Loop!  The only grumble I have is that the join isn't  smooth, my yarn does get caught a bit there, but it's nothing horrible.   I've had worse joins on far more expensive needles; so, for the price, these are pretty great, I think!

Stitch markers are *Silver Rose Stitch Markers from *NotionsEmporium.  I absolutely adore these locking stitch markers for working with Magic Loop and Double Pointed Needles, because I can clip them into the work and don't have to have them dangling on the cable of the circular (where I can and will lose them!),  or, in the case of DPNs, it's about the only way to mark your work, as a regular ring style marker will just fall off the tips of the needles unless it's in the middle of a needle. 

So, this is my current knitting project (along with several  others in various stages of knitting, washing, and finishing!  Now  that I've shared my WIP;  What are you working on today? Share it in the reblogs, or post it in the Works In Progress channel on my Discord!

Feb 27

At least my medical records have anemia on them so if I sleep away most of a day I have a legit reason.

Almost forgot I did do some physical stuff I probably shouldn't have done but now all the Halloween pajamas are in one tub and can stay there until the end of summer. Most are getting worn out and I should consider making a quilt out of them but I'm going to wear them as long as possible.

Also managed to put some odds and ends away, the new metal stamps got as far as the container with all the metal stamps but the resin bits didn't get in to that exact tub. There are several smaller tubs with resin supplies that can go in to one bigger tub but it will make me want to make something to use up one of the bottles and this weather isn't right for it.

Still, if you have any form of ADHSquirrel clear 'project tubs' that hold the supplies you need for hobbies are your friend. You can see what hobby is in there, or stick a label on, and everything you need is right there.

I just put the hand full of crochet thread books in with the crochet thread for now. I can't keep the hooks in there because I have several things that use them but I also made a cute project bag with knit and crochet terms on it to hold the hooks and needles.

The next movie I watch might be Cherry Bomb with Robert Sheehan and Rupert Grint. They were in my dream last night but it was also tangled with Robert's audio book and talking about Borzoi snoots. When that scenario changed to something I wasn't liking I literally said I'm too old for this shit and walked out of that part or my dream. Woke up not long after.

First step with non region DVDs is to see if the VLC media player recognizes them, it does with my Region 0 Japanese Tea Ceremony and a couple of the Pet Shop Boys ones.

Second step is to see if you can put a remote control code in to one of your older players and unlock it. All was good until the door broke on mine.

Third step is to get a region free DVD player from Lord Bezos because they aren't any more than regular ones and don't get caught up in the mark up game. Search for the least fancy one, if you deal with a seller tell them it's for grandma to watch her region 4 stories on DVD and she can use a regular player but not passwords etc.

Fourth step is to hope the one you bought so many years ago you've forgotten still works and doesn't need wifi update shit.

Fifth step pray that someone uploads it to the internet somewhere but that it's in your language or has subtitles. Some of you know what I mean, fucking German dub.

do you have a separate blog for crafting?? in any case, pls answer these for research purposes hehe: 🌿 💌 ❄️ 🐸

Yeah, I have a sideblog just for it. I accidentally showed it on stream once LOL

🌿 - What tips would you give to a beginner? What tips you wish you had known when you started?

That there's a lot of different ways to do a thing, a lot of it depending on your culture or geography, but they all aim to minimize injury while maximizing efficiency. For crochet, it's that your wrist should NOT be angled downwards while you work because it tires you out faster. Work on minimizing your movements once you get the basics down. Your tensioning finger doesn't need to move a lot if you set up the tension good. Also, learn Russian crocheting if you can, it minimizes movements a lot and makes really speedy work. And for knitting, left-hand tensioning (Continental) isn't always fastest lol. Right-hand tensioning (English) can go pretty fast, mostly by having something to brace the right needle with (by locking it in the armpit, with a knitting belt etc). Also, find a way to distribute the weight of your work evenly so your left wrist doesn't get tired quickly.

💌 Do you know other bloggers who inspire you to create? Recommend a few!

@-handweavers of course. A weaver and has good perspectives on racism and imperialism. They don't always post their crafting, but when they do it's my absolute favorite textile art. The lace rot squad, whose urls I've forgotten unfortunately. Outside the tumblr sphere, there's Hazel Tindall. I haven't read her blog a lot but her designs are always great to look at.

❄ Do you have any crafting (either craft or community related) peeves?

Specifically those Knitting Around the World books or a similar variety, where they claim to have knitwear inspired by various fashions all over the world but in reality have 74840404 designs for Western Europe and have either Japan or China for Asia. The one time it had more than 2 countries for Asia, it was Russia 😍 The Chinese one will ALWAYS be red. You're lucky if an African country that isn't Egypt is mentioned, let alone somewhere from Oceania.

Now that we've mentioned Japan, the way people tout 'Japan-inspired!' is annoying too. Haiku Knits--jeez, I hate that book. It looks like nornal knitwear. I'm not surprised that the Japanese people the author met thought their work had Scandinavian influence instead of Japanese. There is barely anything Japanese there. If they do, it's just the silhouette of kimonos and maybe some tabi socks. I guess I should be grateful they're not making 'indigenous inspired' designs and profitting off of that? One author that I think actually does this well is Vicki Square with her Knit Kimono series, because she does some actual research into it, and her designs are more than just vague kimono shape with an anecdote about Japan.

🐸 What do you wish people who don't craft understood better?

That it can be as nuanced and complicated as any other skill. @ing those knitting.com techbros lol. It can be as artsy or as utilitarian or as cheap or as expensive as the crafter wishes. Cheap as in the craft, not the product--crafting takes an enormous amount of time to be able to do skillfully and speedily, and time is a pretty dang expensive resource if you ask me. Also, yes, a handmade product will be much more worth it in the long run. Because it's made by people who actually care about its long term durability and aren't rushing to put out a product on an asdembly line. Not to mention its sentimental value too.

Your Memory Isn't Terrible, I Promise

Okay, please hear me out. This is NOT a post shaming you for not being able to remember anything. It is, in fact, the opposite. There will be no “Just try harder and you’ll do better! :) :)” type of nonsense advice.

Here’s the true root of the problem - it’s not that you have a bad memory. If you have ADHD, it’s most likely that you didn’t truly absorb the information that you were supposed to remember in the first place. Or it’s that you have so much external stimuli bombarding your brain, you can’t pull out the piece of information hidden in your mind when you need it because it’s buried under a ton of other things coming at you in the moment. And now you’re probably thinking “Uhh, okay cool but that’s still not helpful!!!???” 

I used to constantly forget things. IMPORTANT things. A weekly meeting, doctors appointments, assignments - you name it and I’ve lost it in this grey matter behind my eyes. And then someone would mention it out of frustration or concern (usually both) and I would gasp, hate myself or just be completely shocked. The worst feeling is when you realized you knew something but your brain didn’t supply it until far after it was needed. I can’t number the amount of times someone has said “Em, did you know about this?” and a hot feeling of shame would pour over me because I did, in fact, know but had just completely forgotten. And it’s hard using the phrase “I’m so sorry, I completely forgot!” over and over again without skepticism from neurotypical people. “How is that possible?” they would wonder aloud as a I scrambled to make amends. Does this sound like a familiar scene?

So this is what I did about it - it might work for you, or maybe it will spark an idea of some things that are helpful.

First - names. I used to be the WORST with names. I’ve literally forgotten my cousin’s name while introducing him to a friend. I once read that if you said a person’s name three times during a conversation, you would remember it later. I couldn’t usually make it that far because the name would drop out of my head as soon as I would hear it, so I came up with another method. When someone tells me their name, I look them in the eyes and repeat it in my head three or four times. It took some time to train my brain to consciously grasp the information as it was being given to me instead of a panic of 1,000 other distracting thoughts, but I got into the habit. If I’m meeting a group of people, like clients or a team on the first day of work, I try a different tactic. When the name is mentioned, I repeat their name mentally with an unchanging feature. It will be something like this “Cindy - blonde, Cindy - blonde, Cindy - blonde”. If it’s a natural opening, I’ll make a point to speak their name out loud. “Cindy, it’s so lovely to meet you.” This helps cement it in my mind and makes sure that I’m consciously absorbing the information.

Next - write everything possible down. Smartphone notes are the greatest modern invention. If someone is telling me an important detail, I write it down immediately. Telling yourself you will remember it later is our favorite lie - don’t fall for it! Don’t be afraid of taking an extra moment or of people thinking you’re distracted - they actually love it. I will always say “Give me a moment, I’m just making a note of that in my phone.” and they are delighted that you’re showing that you heard them and the information is important enough to record. Again, it has the added benefit of forcing my brain to record the information instead of being distracted by external forces. It’s also a proven fact that if you write something down, even if you don’t read it again later, it reinforces that moment in your memory. And if you realize that your mind wandered while they were talking and you didn’t catch what you needed, writing something down is a great excuse to get them to repeat themselves without feeling as if you’re annoying them.

Now, you’ve put the facts into your brain - but how do you pull them out again? This one is a bit more tricky, and it has more to do with how your ADHD brain processes information. See, our brains are more controlled by external stimuli than neurotypical people. One theory is that ADHD was developed evolutionarily because the humans who could take in the most stimuli around them were more likely to notice and react to threats than neurotypical people, and therefore live longer. This was great while hunting on the savanna and far less helpful in a class lecture or corporate meeting. ADHD brains are great at reacting to what is right in front of us, but any stress - like being put on the spot to answer a question or being surprised by seeing an acquaintance out shopping - makes extra information harder to retrieve. When your body feels stress, it starts wanting to deal with it’s immediate needs and shoves everything else away. 

To counteract this, I’ve found consistent practice of mediation very helpful. When I get the feeling I’m forgetting something important, I take a moment to calm my body and sort through my thoughts until the essential information begins to surface. The best way to explain it is that it feels like unravelling a crocheted scarf - if I can find the right thread to pull, everything else follows. “Okay, but I don’t have time to meditate in the middle of the grocery store when I can’t remember why I’m here!” you may be thinking now. I get it, and you’re right. The process I’m talking about should take just a moment. Consistent meditation practice will help you learn not to clear your mind, but instead evaluate and focus on specific thoughts. You know there is something important, and you start pulling threads until you find the right one. “Okay, I’m in the grocery store, and I know I’m forgetting something but what? What actions have I done today that could spark a memory? I was with my daughter earlier, and she has school tomorrow, is it something with that? Yes, she needs a packed lunch for her field trip! And if she has a field trip, she needs some sunscreen too and I need to remember to make sure her form is in her backpack. Lunch, sunscreen, form.” 

The combination of meditation practice and writing everything down has changed the way I remember things and made me feel so much better about myself. Let me know if there are any other helpful memory tricks you use!

I have so many things to say about the newest chapter, some have already been said, so I won't bother with does. First of, poor Zwei! He is wondering a forgotten part of the factory alone, grounded, all because mommy and daddy are having a rough patch. Second amma honestly bitch slap Lucky, when she didn't even think the yarn could be from Heisenberg, that crushed me a bit but i get it, still does not make me feel any better though! I think she knows what maine means at least... I hope so cause if not I'll get even more angry, lmao. Like girl, he isn't board he is tired cause he is avoiding sleeping probably from what we got of the memory with Alcina, and the crochet program you are getting and it repeating is his doing as well. And love that he let her finish with her hobby before calling her.

Sad little baby Karl honestly broke my heart!

I'm also angry at Karl but that's honestly and expected thing by this point so meh. The walls will come down eventually

Also pls tell me Marou had enough money for cheese! qwq I hate it when he suffers so much

Poor Zwei indeed. A rescue mission must be hatched immediately. Poor baby boy probably thinks he did something to make his mother go away for so long. Shame on you, Heisenberg.

LOL If it crossed her mind about the yarn, she probably discarded it as soon as she thought it. From her perspective, he's being a pissy old man taking away most of her money and depriving her of most social contact.

I would say yes - I think she's gotten enough context clues to know the "Mein" part. She'll just have to see what secrets that book of Donna's will reveal...

And that sleep schedule is W R E C K E D. Our man is lucky to be standing upright at this rate.

Lucky exploring a new hobby? Sure, babe! Lucky struggling and nearly giving up? HOLD UP - I GOTTA SHOW FOR THAT! She's...she's still struggling? Oof...let's...let's play that episode back again...

Oh but there will be much more sad baby Karl. So much more. Gotta explain where all these walls come from.

And he did! No worries! Honestly, out of all the siblings, I see Moreau and Donna as being the most fiscally responsible. Even then, Moreau probably edges out Donna due to her dollmaking. So Moreau is second richest only to Alcina (who loves some retail therapy, let's be real). He's always got money for cheese!

Ok, I know everyone praises P2 for having a canon gay relationship, But can we talk about how it isn't apex of represantation. I mean, while Jun's great, writers avoided giving him a Shadow. Also his relationship with Tatsuya has pretty much all yaoi cliches of that time (like game can't stop reminding us how feminine Jun is). I think Naoto and Kanji's (and Chie's, in the original) are much realistic and meaningful represantations of gender perspective in Japan.

I agree with some things you have said Anon, but I also think you got a lot of things wrong too, so I’m going to try to adress those things down below in this big post.

Just have in mind that this could be just my own opinion in the matter and I could have made some mistakes or forgotten to mention something, but I really respect your opinion and I will be careful to say anything about the matter.

JUST A BIG REMINDER: FOR SOME PEOPLE POINTING OUT FLAWS IS SAYING THE GAME IS BAD, THAT’S NOT THE POINT AT ALL. I’M A BIG FAN OF THE GAMES AND I REALLY RECOMMEND PLAYING THEM. 

ALSO: I saw some ignorants saying that “the game isn’t even supposed to represent anything” and no, don’t freaking use this excuse for putting dirt under the rug, just don’t. If you are going to mention it in a game at least do it right.

First, I don’t think Jun not having a shadow has anything to do with bad writing because they explored his backstory very well even without a presence of his shadow (there is shadows in P2, but if you came from P4 thinking that shadows are necessary you can get some things wrong, exploring your “true self” is not the main point here, this is more of a SMT game where evil and good are the main attraction).

For example, Jun was manipulated to be Joker and control the shadows that were forcefully created to obey him, there wasn’t a reason for him to control his own shadow to begin with.

But this doesn’t mean we don’t try to show him who he truly is and have a insight of his confusing mind and what he really thinks of himself, through the Caracol dungeon we have a look inside Jun’s mind (looking at his younger self that appears like a ghost) and how he was manipulated to believe there wasn’t anything positive for him anymore.

And the relief of seeing the truth of himself.

He didn’t have a reason to have a shadow at all because he was already accepting the things he had done and accepted what was his true self (we even fight him in two forms, it would be a bit too much to have a three round battle against another side of Jun again, seriously that thing was terrible I don’t think I need another Jun to beat up, please, just don’t).

Second, I think Jun being feminine wasn’t exaggerated or “yaoi cliche”, he is a very caring, warm and protective character shown to have big problems of being antisocial, using his calculating self to manipulate other people and the big trauma he suffered when he thought Maya died made him even more closed.

Even if it is canon that he likes Tatsuya they don’t just slap that in your face with homophobic jokes or him being forcefully flirty every second too, he is caring with Tatsuya, praises him and is very attentive with him, Ginko considers him a “rival in love” just like Maya and the rest is pretty much optional demon negotiation dialogues where you flirt with him (that you, the player, can choose to unlock), calling him your “boyfriend” or saying “you like him”, but that’s similar for the girls too. I don’t remember anything overly exaggerated or mandatory for his interactions.

Now, Kanji too has what you would call a feminine side, Jun loves flowers and Kanji loves cute things and crocheting. I don’t see anything wrong in male characters to be shown to have “feminine” interests, this is what we would call representating people that feel that way too. Let boys smell flowers and admire cute things for god’s sake, this is beautiful and there’s nothing wrong with that (both Jun and Kanji wear make up during some scenes too).

But in Persona 4 they totally mock Kanji for having those traits, they call him “queer” and even his own father says that “because he is a man he needs to be strong” and this confused him to no end. We don’t have this kind of homophobic reaction for Jun feminine traits whoever. 

I don’t think it was bad to adress those things, but for the way they made Yosuke (his own friend) to call him queer and make rude jokes all the time when he already suffered enough? That was painfully horrible and nobody called him out for that while on the other hand Ginko just says for Tatsuya “you are free to love whoever you want” when you choose to say you are interested in Jun and that’s it. They don’t shame you or Jun of being queer.

(This whole scene makes me uncomfortable. I’m sorry they wrote you that badly and scrapped your romance route Yosuke).

In Persona 2 Jun is already shown to be a canon gay character without problems to accept this part of himself because he didn’t suffer from people being homophobic with him (he was already suffering enough with trying to get away from people to begin with), but I don’t think this means he is a bad representation just because he didn’t suffer from it. He is just a character that accepted himself easily because Tatsuya was someone special for him since he was a child and he had even a worse trauma of being manipulated to cope with.

As for Naoto, I think she was a great character who saw how bad and sexist society was of having a girl as a detective and needed to dress up like a boy to continue with it and also because she admired male detective figures that marked her childhood, there is also a lot of transexual implications on her shadow, but she was a nice representation by herself (maybe some more development would be nice).

What I think is:

Persona 4 would be a perfect game about accepting your true self if the sexist/transophobic/homophobic jokes weren’t badly treated and overly used for no good reason, this doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t have addressed it, but they made even your friends do that and you, as a protagonist who is supposed to represent the player as much as possible, can’t even do shit about that (It’s just awful and I got a lot of LGBT people coming to me to talk about how uncomfortable it was for them to see that badly treated in a game).

Because of the rude jokes the good representations were totally “covered” up, as for character alone Kanji and Naoto are nice, maybe just not so greatly developed, but for the game on it’s own it’s just poorly treated.

Persona 2 was a game made in the 90′s and they didn’t make that amount of mistakes that Persona 4 made when addressing a character of being interested in men (I mean most people see Kanji as bisexual too, nothing wrong with that) and that’s why people praise this game (and it is the only game you can romance a male character in the series and they didn’t even have social links/cooperation for the whole dating sim thing).

Homophobia is a delicate and heavy topic, if writers want to talk about it the number one rule isn’t to make the whole work with it all over the place (just mention it and never treat about it seriously is a big mistake) and if the character has already accepted who he is then there is not a single reason for him to not just react to it seriously (I really wanted Kanji to call out Yosuke and talk about it seriously, but it didn’t happen).

Tatsuya is a silent protagonist too and he had options to say “sexual discrimination is wrong”, they could’ve just make something similar for Yu if they really wanted some representation even if demon negotiation wasn’t a thing (just for P5 recently).

If Yosuke wasn’t scrapped as a romantic route they could’ve at least showed a character that was just being homophobic because he was still in doubt of his own sexuality (this is a real thing in real life too, sadly), this would be so interesting to see, but when they scrapped this out of the game they just left him as this character who is a complete dick without a reason and nobody cares.

AGAIN WHY THE PROTAGONIST CAN’T FIGHT AGAINST IT IF HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE AS CLOSE AS THE PLAYER AS POSSIBLE. IT’S UNCOMFORTABLE TO JUST SIT THERE AND WATCH.

The mistake that the new team of writers of P3/P4 and the direction made was so bad and regressive that what we got now for Persona 5 as a gay representation is… just, just look at it:

This is what I would call stereotypes and overly bad representation of “”feminine”” male characters (this whole scene is just a big rude joke on gay panic), to compare Jun of being feminine and exaggerated comparing to that? I’m sorry, but I have to disagree with you. 

It’s not because “Japan is still not as progressive with it as other countries” because the media has already changed a lot and there is other games that treat about it with a far openly mind. This isn’t a excuse for anything.

No, the new team didn’t make a good job at all and never learned from that. I’m sorry if it hurts to say that, it hurts me too, but I don’t think the same team of Persona 2 would be able to make that mistake as careful as they was at least.