Thursday Art Walk 205

I'm sorry this is so late, but I've been having trouble sleeping lately, and I woke up late, which meant that everything took too long! That being said, have some Dedbert!

"Dedbert Goes to the Theater"; colored pencil on printer paper; 2019

Paperclip for scale :P

Hoo boy. I'm getting a bit fed up with how dumb Google Drive is being on my laptop. It's a real crapshoot on whether or not it will update my computer version of Drive after I've uploaded pictures, which is... super annoying. It only really likes to be a butt on Thursdays, I've noticed...

I think that'll do it for me today!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

[UPDATE: The moment I emailed the photos to myself, Drive updated. FML.]

Wednesdaymania 205

I have no idea what to write about today. Oops. I haven't been keeping up as much with wrestling while I've been sick (though I have been watching the Hatsu Basho in Sumo, and that has been incredible!), so I haven't got much for you regarding Pro-Wrestling! Yikes!

Here are some things I do know about wrestling this week:

KUSHIDA has wrestled his last match in New Japan (for now - he may return to the company one day) and it was against Tanahashi. That would kind of be like having Dean Ambrose's last match in WWE be against Brock Lesnar.

Speaking of Dean Ambrose, he's apparently leaving the WWE, refusing a 5-year contract that offered a reported cool million a year. Because he hates what they've done with him. He's not a fan of "hokey" stuff, and... well... that's what they've got him doing. His heel-turn is nowhere near as successful as Daniel Bryan's heel-turn, which has been going very, very well. But yeah, Dean's leaving after Wrestlemania. Which is... right around the time Marty Scurll's contract is up at ROH...

I really, really, really want to see Dean join Villain Enterprises or just team up with Marty in some way. I think they'd work well off of one another. And he would look awesome next to PCO. Seriously, Villain Enterprises is amazing.

(Also food for thought: AEW's Double or Nothing PPV will be in Las Vegas, NV - which is where Ambrose lives.)

The angry hippy strikes again!!!

Daniel Bryan has, as I mentioned, gone heel in WWE. He's angry, he's bitter, he's vegan. He's going to kick your butt. I like it. I never would have believed that he had it in him. I felt the same way about Sami Zayn, but his heel work is also aces. I wish they could work together in WWE. Those two would be a great heel-force. Bryan working for the Big Belt (which he's made an eco-friendly version of), Zayn claiming intercontinental or cruiserweight, Ziggler taking the other of the two, and a tag team to take those belts. WWE needs a good heel stable. They're not doing well with strife because there aren't many groups left. This individualistic nonsense works in the Fight world, but not in Wrestling-land.


Spoilers Ahead for Being the Elite:


In the realm of AEW and its people, the latest episode of Being the Elite, How Dare You Defy Me, showed the Young Bucks sneaking into DEFY Wrestling and surprising all the fans there, putting over DEFY and other Indie companies. This leads me to speculate that AEW would be interested in a larger degree of cooperation with other companies than most promotions. My hope is that they would have multi-promotion Pay Per Views in the future.

Besides the sneak-in, the episode also has Cody pasting a picture of MJF's face over Marty's and trying to convince Brandi that Marty is dead. Brandi is having none of it and has shown that she has a very similar opinion of MJF's character to mine - he's a tool. MJF is a consummate heel, so I'm supposed to have a low opinion of him. He's a good wrestler, though. He's just... well, he has Backpfeifengesicht, which if you don't know the meaning of, feel free to Google it. Lol.

Finally in the episode, the red phone that might be Kenny's missing iPhone has been found and shows about 9 days remaining on the timer. That sounds like Kenny's phone because his contract is officially up at the end of January, but... rumor has it that NJPW still has plans for him. Could he be the semi-official go-between for AEW and NJPW? I hope so. He'd make a very cool inter-company wrestler.


Okay, no more spoilers for BTE, you can continue as you please!


A few final notes on rumors & the like:

Hideo Itami might be leaving WWE?
Zack Ryder was bumped out of the Royal Rumble lineup by Kurt Angle
Trent Baretta & Chuckie T may be leaving NJPW soon. Possibly to AEW?
Ace Romero = best export from Saco, ME.

That's all from me for this Wednesday!

Go Enjoy Something!!!
FC

Talk About Tuesday 205

Well, this is a tenacious illness, I'll give it that much. I'm still coughing, though less today than yesterday. I've been lucky enough that my hearing is still mostly intact (or as much as it ever is), and I haven't been sneezing as much as Z. Poor Z has been having a really rough go with this cold or whatever it is.

I've been taking a lot of my own advice - plenty of liquids, eating mostly good food (pizza last night doesn't count because some of it had jalapenos...), and trying to sleep.

Sleep is the hardest part, to be honest. I've mostly been crashing around 4AM and waking up around 10... that's not enough. That's about 6 hours of sleep when I should be getting 8.

I should try harder :P

As for my writing goals... uh... no. I haven't met this month's quota at all. I hope I can actually get some writing done before February, but I'm not holding my breath. It's very hard to concentrate on my writing when my laptop keeps trying to do updates and launches itself off a cliff every couple days. Apparently it has forgotten how to actually reboot. Hooray. I mean, I can shut it down and then turn it back on no problem. It just can't "restart" restart. At all.

Also, I'm just having a hard time finishing the beginning of the story. How can I focus on getting the grumpy writer into her house when I know there are cannibals and vehicular graveyards and sentient laboratory wolf-dogs running around?! I want to write about cannibals and sentient wolf-dogs!!! But I need to get there first. I haven't earned the crazy yet.

As for the backup story, that one's going to be pretty sedate by comparison. And it has a scene where a professional wrestler beats someone unconscious with a metal chair in a parking lot which leads to a 9-year-old designing lucha masks for them.  Yeah. The first story is so bonkers that that seems tame by comparison.

That being said, I can't wait to get to work on everything.

• Tomorrow, I'll be writing about wrestling - don't know what yet.
• Thursday I'll draw either more Dedbert or some bubbles.
• Friday I get to talk about a batcrap insane movie involving a Canadian folk rocker, a heavily modified jet, what feels like every famous tv actor ever, Rutger Hauer, and Death Metal.
• Saturday will probably involve one of the weird idle games I've been playing
• Sunday I'll talk about the really weird tea I tried and maybe the hotpot I'm making today.
• Monday will be my hilarious attempts at face-construction for Kirby plus I might figure out how to make a poll about what to make next. I would love suggestions, btw.

So that's all from me today, and I've gotta run!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday 205: Kirby Assembled

Well, it's finally stuffed & sewn, but I haven't braved giving poor Kirby a face yet. I'm seriously considering just finding some felt and doing that instead of trying (terribly) to embroider one on...

As for stuffing, you want to jam your fluff into the body, feet, and arms as firmly as you can. With this particular design, the openings are so. freaking. small. that it's really hard to get the fluff in, but you can eventually jam it in with, say, a fingertip. My finger is small, so it was possible to get the stuffing in, but it took me an hour. You may want to use a dowel or something to stuff these things. Also, don't just reach in there and grab your polyfill or whatever out of the bag without checking first. I've found things like sewing needles in new bags. I'm sure that's just because of weird shipping or packaging errors. Heck, last time it could've been from me storing my sewing & stuffing materials together. Point is: be careful. Look before you bury your fingers in the floof.

When trying to hide yarn & also secure it better, make sure to put the yarn through the center of a stitch.
Slip your needle behind the v-shaped stitch and pulled it through.

And then pull your yarn through, pull it tight, and then snip the excess off!

The only advice I can give you for sewing on limbs is to eyeball it.
It's gonna look wonky on the first few stuffed things you make.
That's just how it goes.
We'll consider our Kirby a practice round for future amigurumi!

When attaching limbs, I find it easiest to just... jam your needle between stitches.
It's weird.

As you can see, I eventually brought the ends of the foot-tails up through the body and left them hanging out of the top.
You can snip yours off if you want - I'm leaving them for now on purpose.

I attached one arm here and eventually left the tail hanging out.
It's not perfect, but it's there!

Both arms & legs are attached now!
Now, which side should I put his face on?
This side with the strings (which I'll snip before I put his face on)?

Or this one?

Let me know which side to put the face on!

Now Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Survival Sunday 204: What Do When Sick?!

It sucks to get sick when you're a kid, but if you're one of the lucky ones, your parents will nurse you through your illness and make sure you get plenty of fluids and soup and comfort you when your lungs feel like they're about to crawl up your throat.

But what about when you're an adult on your own?! What then? There's no one to pat your head and call you a poor little bunny and get you your Pedialyte and Alphabet Soup! How do you take care of yourself when you're sick?

Specifically, what do you eat and drink?

Well, for beverages, you want clear liquids - preferably water. If you're going to drink something fizzy, it should probably be ginger ale, even though most of it doesn't contain actual ginger. Why? Because it tastes the same both ways. That's why you eat or drink most things while sick - because they won't be too awful on the return trip if that's your illness. Having faced that porcelain beast already in the past six months (thanks, expired chipotle southwest ranch...) I can assure you, you do not want to know the difference.

Tea, water, apple juice, and ginger ale are your friends. Why apple juice? Again - same taste either way. Get the unsweetened stuff. If you're not allergic to honey, then add some of that to your tea. Apparently slippery elm bark works well for sore throats, and I can tell you from experience that chamomile does help you sleep a bit. I'm more an apple juice & water kind of person, though - I prefer things to either be sweet or nonexistent.

Now, food can be difficult. The foods you should eat while sick are determined entirely by what kind of sick you are. Are you: Barfy, Coughy/Sneezey, or just Miserable?

If you're Barfy, then food is going to be pretty far from the top of your list of things you want to encounter. Now is not the time for trying new and exciting meals. Now is not the time for takeout. Now is the time for buying plain soups/broths/stocks and sipping those between runs to the bathroom. Don't bring the cup in with you. Not only is that super weird, you're risking contaminating your tasty broth/soup/stock with poop germs.

You should also try to get your proper vitamins/minerals throughout the day. You want to make sure that you have your soup, yeah, but make sure that you're also getting electrolytes. Barfy sickness calls for sports drinks or Pedialyte. Seriously. Also: make sure your stomach is never 100% empty. It sucks to be continuously emptying your guts. It really does. I know. I've had both the flu and food poisoning. I know how it sucks to be in the bathroom every minute or two. Just. Eat. Something. If you can, get some toast in you. It'll be gross, but solid matter is also important. Miso soup + tofu works. Just get stuff in your belly, because otherwise, it will just be hours of internal hell for you followed by probably an emergency room visit because you've damaged your insides by trying to throw them up.

Ew.

So - hope you're not sicking up all over the place, because that sucks.

If you're Coughy/Sneezey (aka having a bad cold or mild flu), then congratulations, this is the easiest thing to eat for. If you're stuffed up, it's the best time to crack out the stuff that burns your face off. This is when you eat chicken soup with all the peppers. This is when you up your capsaicin intake. Why? Because spicy foods make your sinuses empty like a party the cops are breaking up. You're clogged up? Spicy food will unclog you. If it doesn't, then just up your warm fluid intake and take a shower every night before bed. Also run a humidifier if your house air is all dry.

You can try new things when you're coughy/sneezey, too, with less risk of hating it. My evidence for this is that Z & I both have bad colds right now, and we were graciously given some durian candy. It's... strong. Very strong. I had it when I could still smell/taste. It was... like if someone had some stale stewed onions and mixed them in with some kind of discount bakery plastic bags & all. Not 100% unpleasant, but not anything I'd call "king of fruits", either. Z couldn't taste much of the badness.

Then again, Z thinks that Moxie is the best soda on earth...

Love you Z!

No sickness is good, but Coughy/Sneezey is endurable. It's easy to cook for (anything you feel like eating, kick it up a notch unless you're really sensitive to spices), and it's fairly easy to treat. Most cold medications exist to unstuff your face and suppress your cough, etc. If you're going to suffer through a sickness, you'd probably prefer having a couple crummy days where you're mainlining spicy ramen and Mexican hot chocolate.

You don't want Miserable sickness.

If you've had the flu, Shingles, or any other kind of terrible malady where getting out of bed (or even just lying there) is not just a chore, it can sometimes seem impossible, then you know Miserable illness. And I'm sorry. This is the hardest illness to nurse yourself through. Where possible, enlist the aid of others. Any others you can. And hope they can cook.

You're probably not going to feel like eating.

Too freakin bad. You're (presumably) a living being. Living beings require food (of some sort) and water.

You need to refuel your body as it fights off whatever you're trying to survive. Eat at least three times a day, even if you can barely drag yourself into the kitchen for a crappy sandwich. If you know the illness is coming (for instance, if you suffer from an autoimmune disease that gives you some respite once in a while, or if you recognize the symptoms of your chronic migraines coming on), then stock up on things you can just put in your face with minimal effort. If you're just getting slammed out of nowhere, it can be tempting to just... give up. Do not give up. Go eat.

A spoonful of peanut butter. A sleeve of crackers. A tiny cup of applesauce. Some instant soup you chug from a microwavable bowl. I don't care what you're eating as long as it's food.

Don't stock up on empty calories, though - don't just mainline sodas and candy and cookies and convenience store junk food. It's so tempting, I know - it's right there, there's no prep. Just pop & go. But you need real food to survive. It sucks, but that's the way it goes.

If you are Miserable Sick, my best advice is this: toast & whatever you can get onto the toast. Toast & jam. Toast & cheese (but not if it's a migraine). Toast & butter (again, avoid if you have a migraine). Toast & Nutella as a treat. Toast is easy. Eat toast.

If you can, I'd suggest also keeping some soups or tinned meat products on hand. Spam sounds gross. It looks gross. Lite Spam is actually pretty okay. Toss it in some soup to get you some protein. If you are a vegetarian or vegan, go for tofu or other meat substitutes. Keep some chicken (or chik'n) nuggets on hand for emergencies. Make sure you can run your microwave to keep yourself fed if you don't feel conscious enough to use the stove or oven without burning your house down.

Basically, my only advice for sickness is the advice I give & use for all unpleasant things in life:

Eat. You'll feel better. (Eventually).

Go Enjoy Something
FC

Saturday Casual Gaming 205: Slidey Block Puzzle

I am still sick. It's not good. Ugh.

Thankfully, the Google app store has me covered with a bunch of games to let me be awake but still full of derp and have limited to no punishment for my derpiness.

From publishers Habby and Mavis Games, this is Slidey Block Puzzle.

And yes, the whole game is that cute.

I don't quite know how to describe this game, to be honest. It's a bit like if Tetris and a children's book had a weird, adorable baby. You slide blocks horizontally and try to make a complete row. Every move you make brings the next partial row up from the bottom. If the pieces reach the top they are consumed by the demon bunny.

Which is why I prefer the kitty skin - instead of being eaten, they go to the fish at the top, where I'm sure they feast.
That's totally what's happening.
...
But look at their faces!!!!

The monster blocks are the default appearance.

Now, what's up with the weird dude who's usually at the top of the screen? He's the shaman. He's an unreliable powerup. He'll disappear one of your blocks if you click on him when he's glowing. For other powerups, you have those three tabs at the bottom. One will disappear a block, one will disappear blocks of a particular color, and one will split up the blocks into smaller ones at random. I love that the powerups change names when you change over to the cat skin - it's a lot less violent, tbh.

I've been playing this game for a few days now, and I'm still kinda baffled by it. I'm finding it hard to pay attention to text right now, so I probably missed most of the tutorials. I am a little annoyed by how ad-heavy it is, though. Want any of the gifts from Gift blocks? Watch an ad. Want to keep extra gems? Watch an ad. I don't know if spending real money gets rid of the ads, but... I'm not willing to find out, either.

Still, if you're running low on attention span, enjoy Tetris-styled puzzles, and like cute art like this, give it a go!

Now Go Enjoy Something!!!
FC

Filmic Friday 204: Ed Wood (1994)

Once upon a time, there was a filmmaker named Edward D. Wood Jr.

Ed wanted to make movies about topics he cared about. He had some good friends in actors Bela Lugosi and Bunny Breckinridge, "psychic" Criswell, and professional wrestler Tor Johnson, but he didn't have, according to Hollywood, much talent in making movies. They were also apparently weirded out by his alleged habits of crossdressing and hanging out with fringe personalities.

Yet you've almost certainly seen or heard of his biggest films.

Ed Wood was the man who made Plan 9 from Outer Space and Bride of the Monster, after all.

In 1994, Tim Burton decided that we needed to have a biopic of this bizarre man and cast created Ed Wood, which we watched on Z's birthday!

What a film!!!

So, here's the cast:

Ed Wood is played by a young Johnny Depp, who fits the roll perfectly. He really does remind me of Ed Wood in a lot of ways, to be honest.

Bela Lugosi is played by Martin Landau in the most convincing makeup I've ever seen. He really gets lost in the role of a fading star to the point where I honestly forget he's not actually Bela once or twice.

Ed's first girlfriend, Dolores Fuller, is played by Sara Jessica Parker, who was honestly the perfect choice for a woman who'd had enough.

Kathy O'Hara, Ed's future wife, is played by Patricia Arquette, who really does seem to take everything in stride. It's a great performance.

Criswell, the bullcrap psychic, is played to the hilt by Jeffrey Jones, who nails not only Criswell's voice and intonations, but also his bizarre, stiff mannerisms.

Bunny Breckinridge is played by the incomparable Bill Murray, and... he's perfect.

Vampira is played by Lisa Marie, and I absolutely buy her performance, though her voice is a bit less... husky than the OG Vampira.

Finally, we have the role of Tor Johnson, who is played by the late, great George "The Animal" Steele. What a choice! He was born to play Tor Johnson!!!

The real Tor Johnson in Plan 9

George Steele as Tor in Ed Wood

The plot of Ed Wood is the leadup to and making of Plan 9 from Outer Space, though it also shows the making of Bride of the Monster, too, so it's kind of a two-for-one deal. Everyone is playing their parts perfectly, and the film score just makes it even more perfect!

I'm not going to spoil much for you, since you should absolutely watch the movie, but it's an impossible film to ignore, so if you get a chance to watch it, do!

Otherwise, you'll never know the context for this shot of Johnny Depp in drag.

That's all for me today, folks - I've gotta go nurse this weird cold I've developed.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Thursday Art Walk 204: Two for One!

Today got off to a very late start. I woke up at the crack of noon with a hoarse throat and a vague sense that I'm probably going to have a crappy cold in the next couple days, and then I got my morning mocha in me and wanted to get to work.

It took me hours to actually start drawing.

I feel drained and exhausted, and, to be honest, I just kinda want to nap for the rest of 2019. Hooray.

That being said, here's Dedbert enjoying the ridiculous changes in the weather over the last week:

"Sad Bird in Snow"; colored pencil on legal paper; 2019

"Annnnd it's gone"; Colored pencil on legal paper; 2019

So, this week we've had 9℉ (-12.8℃) temperatures with 10"(25.4cm) of snow followed almost instantly by 45℉ (7.2℃) with what feels like about 10" of rain. And don't get me started on the damn wind! Today it got up to about 35mph (51.5kph). Ugh.

I've been watching a lot of Brutalmoose lately on Twitch. He just got up to 500k subscribers on YouTube, so that's pretty awesome. If you're looking for a way to hop into watching him, the 500k subscriber stream is perfect for it, since it's literally him watching his own old videos and commenting on them!

Aside from that, today seems to be a toast, coffee, & soup kind of day.

My deepest sympathies to those of you who have had to brave the elements todayor in the last couple of days.

Go Enjoy Something
FC

Wednesdaymania 204: Learning About Wrestling

Last week, I let you know where to watch wrestling (aside from any local wrestling companies you might have in your area - those you'll have to research yourselves!). This week, I'd like to let you know some of my favorite places to get wrestling news, updates, reviews, etc. This will be broken down into a few different sections - Video, Podcast, and Text. Now, there is a little crossover, here and there, among these groups, but I'll be putting each source where I experience it the most.

TEXT

• Cageside Seats - This is a good resource for rumors and news about wrestling. To be honest, I don't know that much about the reporters and I don't glue myself to the website. I use this and Figure 4 to help me write my blogs.
• Figure Four - This is the Wrestling Observer's website. Some of you may be annoyed that I listen to Dave Meltzer. Okay. That's fine. I don't always agree with the guy on everything. That's the beauty of journalism. You can disagree with a journalist and still follow the news they provide, and he's been pretty accurate in his reporting as far as I'm concerned.

VIDEO

• Botchamania - If you don't know Botchamania yet, I strongly suggest giving it a watch before it's crushed beneath the ridiculous jackboots of WWE. The current incarnation of Botchamania is the result of Maffew Greg. If you need a chuckle, go to the Botchamania website and read the FAQs. They're awesome, and so is he. The videos he makes are compilations of wrestling screw-ups or funny moments set to video game music and with a bunch of awesome running jokes. It's a good channel. Go watch it!
• OSW Review - These lads are technically a video podcast, but since I have mainly experienced them as a video series, that's how I'll talk about it. Basically, these guys talk about various wrestling Pay Per Views, etc and have a great time. Hope you understand British & Irish accents. Otherwise you're gonna have... issues.
• Wrestling With Wregret - Brian Zane has worked in the wrestling industry as both a manager and a wrestler. He knows what he's talking about. He's also hilarious, has great music in his videos, and he's not a bad cook. To be honest, of everyone on this list, he's been one of my biggest inspirations to keep talking about wrestling on the internet.
• Wrestle Talk - Top 10 lists, interesting news, and a lot of British people. Also Wrestling.
• Cultaholic - I mostly watch this for the WTF Moments episodes with King Ross. Funny stuff!

PODCASTS

• 6:05 Superpodcast
• Talk is Jericho

I'll be honest, guys, I don't listen to many Wrestling Podcasts - that's mostly Z's domain. I have listened to some, but I'm a video game music & Nightvale kind of listener, so... whoops.

Regardless, there are a nearly infinite number of places to go for a free wrestling fix, so if you're looking for rumors or entertainment, the internet has you covered. I didn't mention Xavier Woods' UpUpDownDown here, or Being the Elite, but that's because UUDD is kind of sponsored by WWE now and Woods mostly covers video games with people who happen to be wrestlers, and BtE has been covered many times before. Still, they're fun watches!

That's all for me today, I think!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday 204

It's been a heck of a week and it's only Tuesday. With the winter storm that took over my part of the country in effect, I've been basically stuck in my house for a couple days, and while it meant that I got to rest a lot more, it also meant that I was forcibly separated from Z, and I do not like that. At all.

I was going to do something for Friday's blog during this time, but I had to give up. I just couldn't focus on Outlaw of Gor long enough to get a Cabot count... some other time, I guess.

Let's take a peak at what I'll be doing in the next 7 days:

• Tomorrow I'll talk wrestling - probably about who I watch talk about wrestling!
• Thursday will be Art again. I'm enjoying the Dedbert chronicles we've got going.
• Friday will likely be about Z's birthday movie, which I first watched in the home of 1990s comic book legend Jon Bogdanove while hammering out an all-nighter of comic pages from an old Silver Surfer script. I'll probably reiterate that story on Friday, too.
• Saturday will have me blabbing about one of the games I've been playing or about who I watch talk about video games. I'm not sure yet...
• Sunday will likely be me talking about how to spruce up tomato soup or something easy like that.
• Next Monday, we will be stuffing and sewing up our Kirby amigurumi and I may have a few different choices available for my next project!
• Next Tuesday, we'll talk about how the week went, how bad my inevitable cold is, and how much I need to catch up on my writing.

Speaking of my writing, I'm sorry to say that of the 3k words I should have by now I have... just over 400. Yikes.

I should've been more focused on writing I think. That brings me to 10% efficiency or so. Yech.

Still, I've at least got Trevor off of his stupid truck!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday 204: Kirby Has Feet

Welcome to the week I worked on feet. I did end up finding my fuchsia twist yarn that I wanted to use for Kirby's feet - it was in front of my tv, underneath VHS copies of Creature and House on Haunted Hill. Which are right above my box of meh mint hot chocolate K-cups... I might need to clean up a bit :|

As always, here's the pattern we're working from. I did the feet today!

I'll be honest - I don't enjoy doing chain-based circles.
I don't have the eyes for it.
It's easier for me to just... do a magic circle with the right amount of Single crochet stitches.
Unfortunately for me, I decided to follow the pattern 100%.
It wasn't that bad, at least.

I actually love increasing & decreasing in single crochet.
It's fairly easy and simple to keep track of.
When you're increasing off of a chain, though, it can be a bit fraught.
I have a hard time seeing the back bump of each chain.

i think I'm just going to have to give up on the zoom function of my phone...

By now, this is round 4 (including the chain round).
If you're wondering about the inc 3 notation in the pattern, I'm not a fan of it either, but I don't know how to write it better, so I have no suggestions.
I guess we just suffer :P

You may also notice by Round 5 that these feet are oblong.
This is good.
Feet don't tend to be spheres, after all.

It did say to leave a long tail... it just seems like it's not in the right place, you know?

Now it's making me think of the top of a cupcake!

Since the last two rounds are literally just decreasing around, you end up with an oblong blob.
Make 2. We'll be stuffing and assembling next week!
Hopefully I'll figure out the eyes then...
We'll see...

I'd just like to say this:

I am awful - truly wretched - at embroidery and sewing in general. I can make basic repairs (sewing on buttons, closing seams, etc) but I'm not very adept at making thread to what I want.

Kirby's gonna have an interesting face to go with his swirly shoes.

Go Enjoy Something, I guess!
FC :P

Survival Sunday 203: Improving Instant Noodles

One of the things I've done on here more often than anything else, I think, is dressing up instant noodles. Here are a few ways Z & I have spruced up instant noodles (like the little square bricks of ramen you can pick up at the supermarket!).

This was a fairly plain ramen that we added a lot to!

One of the things you can do with ramen is dress it up. This bowl only came with some powdered ramen soup base and the noodles. We added some chicken bacon (delicious), frozen corn, scallions, an egg, and then some store-bought gyoza on top! First, I boiled water on the stove, then I added the corn & bacon to cook into the ramen. Next came the scallions, which Z cut into nice, big, grabbable pieces. Then I added the noodles & floated the egg on top of them, where the water cooked the egg perfectly. I believe we also seasoned this (honestly fairly bland) soup base with some curry powder, garlic powder, ramen pepper, and soy sauce!

This and some pepper were the whole of the ingredients in the next dish.

It was some sort of a red miso soup. I did my best to eyeball things, but...
It would very much behoove you to get a ml measuring cup when you're dealing with products from other countries.
It turns out that 3 servings of this soup base plus the udon needed maybe 5 cups of water instead of the 4 or so I used?

I say this because that soup? It's the consistency of gravy.
And it's incredible.
On second thought, just use the 4 cups if you find this product.
The thicker, richer texture is perfect with a mass of udon and an egg!

You may have noticed at this point that we add eggs to most of our ramen. The reason for this is twofold: 1) we saw people doing this in videos of ramen shops in Japan, and 2) I really like eggs.

Obviously, if you can't or don't eat eggs, you can add whatever you like to ramen! Before I added eggs, I would sometimes add torn up slices of deli chicken or any other lunchmeat we had in the fridge. Had I had more tofu growing up, that would've been my go-to, I think. You can also add different sauces and seasonings to ramen to completely change the flavor. If you don't have much of a budget, just grab a couple packets of red pepper flakes next time you're at a Pizza Hut - they go great in cheapo ramen and help boost the flavor while knocking off some of the salt content.

Soy sauce, sriracha, and even mustard can really change a dish - try weird things. The best part is that most grocery store ramen costs less than a dollar a brick, so even if you botch it, hopefully it won't put you too far into the red.

My mother does something else with ramen - she doesn't use the flavor packets from the ramen she buys. Instead, she adds pre-made alfredo sauce or tomato sauce to hers and has a cheap lunch between jobs. I legitimately enjoy the flavor packets (well, after amendments are made, like dumping half the spice cupboard in there...), so that's not really my style.

What do you guys like to do with your cheapo ramen? Do you have anything special you add to it? Have you tried turning it into yakisoba? (I am actually planning on trying that some time...) Let me know in the comments, eh?

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Saturday Casual Gaming 203: Card Hunter

Card Hunter is a D&D style RPG game where you're playing yourself playing a Dungeons & Dragons style game with a nerd and his overbearing jerkwad brother while the nerd (your DM) fails at flirting with the pizza delivery girl. I'm sure the tofu & pineapple pizza is supposed to make you dislike your DM. I'm also sure I'd probably like it. I'm weird like that.

Available on Steam & Kongregate, this game was made by BlueManchu, AchieveZen, Farbs, & FlaxativeCH back in 2014 (on Kongregate, at least). I've recently started the Steam version for giggles, and since I had forgotten how the tutorial levels worked.

You start off with three premade characters who you play, miniature-style, on a board. Your cards dictate whether or not you can move or attack or block, and they make the difference between your dwarf fighter kicking butt or just loafing in a corner while your mage murders everything.

The game does a great job of explaining everything to you, but if you like D&D but you also like trading card games, this is an amazing hybrid!

I mean, miniatures with cards! What could be cooler?!

The only quibble I have is that their premium accounts are on timers. You can't just be like "here's a hundred bucks, stop pestering me and give me the good loot". You have to basically resubscribe every year. Or week. Yikes.

I guess that's only a quibble because I'm cheap.

Regardless, I appreciate the use of pizza as a premium currency, lol. You're bribing the DM for good loot with pizza, which, when I was a DM, probably would have worked like a charm...

For everything else, there's in-game Gold.

I have been having fun with this game, and I hope you do too!

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Filmic Friday 203: Toys (1992)

Back in 1992, Robin Williams made a movie that go widely panned. I did not see it until recently, and... I don't get it.

Toys is great!

I legitimately do not understand why this movie got crapped on.

Look at this. This is what this movie looks like.
It's like if someone filmed a Willy Wonka film on the set of the old Windows background!
You know the one - with all the rolling grass!

Also, it's technically a Christmas movie.

It's quite the bizarre opening.
Ballet, a living Christmas tree, Santa on a plane...

I tend to like movies that take place around Christmas, tbh. There tends to be either an innocence that appeals to the child in me, or it's magical, or it's adventurous. Toys is an innocent movie, which considering there's kind of a sex scene in there and people talk about very adult things and anatomy, is a strange thing to say. The adults in this movie are adults, but the whole movie is about toys, play, and innocence. It's about growing up without losing yourself in the misery of adulthood. It's about letting children be children. It's...

It's miserably prophetic of our current military industrial complex.

So.

What is Toys?

Toys is a Robin Williams movie from 1992 about a toymaker who dies and leaves his company to his brother, a war-obsessed general (played by Michael Gambon). Gen. Leland Zevo has very little patience for his nephew, Leslie (Robin Williams) and... unique niece Alsatia (Joan Cusack), and instead wants to create war toys (guns, tanks, etc). That is about as un-Zevo-toys as you can get, but he wants it anyway. Now, he's a bit bananas because he never got to 4 stars, which his father (Jack Warden) has never respected him for, so to give himself a boost, he comes up with an evil plot (because it's a 90s/80s film that someone came up with in the 70s and it shows) to basically replace the big expensive military with cheap, mass-produced toys.

And he wants them piloted by kids who think they're playing video games.

Now, I haven't even gotten into how awesome the factory is, how hilarious LL Cool J is as Michael Gambon's son Patrick, or how Leslie grows up because he falls in love with Robin Wright's Gwen Tyler, but wow...

Our introduction to Robin Wright's character in the duplication room is freaking hilarious!

There's a lot to this movie.

Like... a lot a lot...

This movie has so many good actors! Arthur Mallet, Jamie Foxx, Debi Mazar...

It's really a great group of people.

And set designers - that's a miniature Manhattan!

And prop designers! Look at all of this!

So, basically, I love this movie and everything it represents!

It's the story of a good man going to war, more or less, because in the end, Robin Williams' Leslie Zevo has to take on the armies of evil war toys that his uncle has produced in order to save not only Zevo toys and its legacy, but childhood itself.

Because kids would've been used to pilot these things into war zones.
...
We just call them drones now.

The fight scenes at first seem quite incongruous, but they're very natural to the storytelling. Of course there's a war in the toy factory. There's a mad general in charge. It could go no other way. Where there are guns and people who have been told they should use them, there will be war, whether anyone else likes it or not.

So yes, in the end the childlike innocence of the toys overcomes the guns and bombs of the wicked armada, but... Leslie has been forced to grow up. The toys have become weapons themselves. The innocence has been lost.

Even Alsatia faces terrible change.

But life returns to some semblance of normalcy afterwards.

It's...

it has a pretty dark outro, if you're paying close enough attention after all.

This movie has never deserved to be crapped on. It's a movie about adults behaving like kids to force kids to behave like adults. It's a movie about innocence not only lost but twisted into a shameful, weaponized thing. It's a movie about love and hate and how none of those emotions are simple or easy. It's a movie that doesn't take itself too seriously because it knows itself and doesn't have to pretend to be an opus.

It's a quintessentially 1990s film.

And it makes me want a lot more of Yolanda & Steve...

Go watch Toys.

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FC

PS: Sorry I couldn't find a music video version of that song that didn't suck...

Thursday Art Walk 203

I drew another picture of my Squishable, Dedbert for you guys!

"Sushi Night"; colored pencil on printer paper; 2019

I'm really enjoying using him as a model for art this year! Even though sometimes he looks less than thrilled. I promise you, though, he's very happy to be near the tuna sashimi, salmon roll, oshinko, and rice with umeboshi :)

(also, woo, I'm up to 400 words on my main story... only 2600 left to catch up!)
(uh... 1500 to catch up on the backup story...)
(writing is hard)

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Wednesdaymania 203: Watch Wrestling

Let's take a moment to calm down the speculation and instead focus on where one can watch wrestling these days! I'm only linking to free things, so don't worry about getting your credit card out unless you desperately want to throw money at companies right now.

WWE has shows on USA and E!, as well as on their own network and Hulu.

Impact! is on Pursuit and, interestingly enough, Twitch!

Ring of Honor has its own network, but it's also on Sinclair broadcasting (and the Charge! network).

New Japan Pro Wrestling is on its own network, but it's nearly impossible to watch on TV in the US unless they're crossing over with Ring of Honor and they send someone like Taichi over. If it's Taichi, you can afford to miss it.

Lucha Underground is a little up in the air, but you can catch it on El Rey.

AAA is... well... if you're dedicated to lucha and love AAA, you probably already know how to find it. I have to say that the last few Triple Manias haven't impressed. Sorry. Also, it's almost impossible to watch it weekly here in the states (there are places you can flip on the tv and watch, but it's not a far-reaching show here).

CMLL is another lucha promotion, (which I think has finally surpassed AAA in consistent quality, sorry AAA,) but unless you're catching it attached to New Japan, it can be a bit difficult for US-based (especially Northeastern US-based) viewers to get a hold of episodes. It's easier to find CMLL on YouTube, especially when they team up with NJPW.

MLW is a primarily YouTube-based company with an amazing roster and wonderful production value. If you're interested in watching Konnan get his world rocked by Low-Ki, or you want to see how Teddy Hart & the new Hart Foundation are doing, then here you go.

Defiant Wrestling is a cool company that popped up before What Culture had its huge breakup. Uh.  You're gonna want to go learn about that on your own. It was bad. It was very bad. The wrestling on Defiant, however, is very, very good. Check it out.

NWA isn't quite a wrestling promotion, but it does have its own show! If you want to follow one of the oldest and most prestigious championships as it tours the world on the waists of some of the best wrestlers in history, you can find it here, courtesy of the guy from Smashing Pumpkins. What even is wrestling.

Finally, we have AEW, which is not currently on tv, hasn't had their first official show (though I suppose All In was their unofficial start, wasn't it?), and isn't finished building their roster. They can be found (officially) through here and here.

Alright, that'll be all from me today - I hope to do another list like this next week where I talk about different places to go for wrestling reviews, discourse, and just fun chat!

Go Enjoy Something!
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Talk About Tuesday 203

My god am I behind on writing.

It's the third week of 2019. I should be rapidly approaching my third thousand word. Nope.

I'm around 300.

One of my supporting characters won't get off his rented truck.

But hey - writing can be messy sometimes! At least I remember everyone's names and motivations and I know where we're headed in the plot.  I don't, always ...

I dug up an old pair of Steampunk goggles I used to use as sunglasses. They're actually kind of helping me get into my main character's mindset, since she writes about a Steampunk detective. I've missed Jay and her growling bad moods and her weird obsessions.

I've missed writing.

Now if only I could make myself keep up... I'm probably going to have to put myself on a stricter schedule. No more sleeping past 10AM this year! I'll need to start setting up a workspace just for writing, too. It'll honestly likely just be a tv tray downstairs in the morning while I write...

The only other thing I'd like to say is that Resident Evil 6 is bad and the studio that pooped it out should feel bad. What the heck have I been watching on ProJared's Twitch and YouTube channels...

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Fiber Monday 203: Kirby pt 3

I never did locate a darker pink yarn for the feet, so I've moved on to the arms this week! Both arms are identical to each other, so I'm only showing you one.

One of the things that is driving me batty about this amigurumi is this:
everything is written in odd numbers.
The arms start with 3 sc. THREE.
I'm used to the old "multiples of 6" progression scheme...

The next step is to make 3sc into one stitch, then sc in each stitch around (5 sc total)

3 sc in one stitch, sc around (8sc)

I'm pretty sure I've missed a photo...
The progression is bizarre.
5 > 8 > 9 > 11 > 13 > 15 > 15.
What even is this.

It makes a cute little thumb-cover, tbh.

It even has the kind of dip-shape that my thumb has from knuckle to tip!

Conclusion: Kirby's arms are all thumbs.
Kirby = clumsy.
It's science. You can't argue with that.

In case it isn't obvious, of course I'm being silly here. Kirby can't be all thumbs. He's a semi-amorphous blob of devourment. If anything, he's all stomach.

Regardless, here's the pattern again (I skipped the feet, and I'll go back to them next week :P)

After we finish all of Kirby's limbs, I'll show how I stuff it and then we'll do our best to sew it together. Yikes.

It's not gonna be pretty, guys.

Making his face will also be unpretty.

I'm not an embroiderer.

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