eff_ess_oe

The video I'm about to show y'all is something I've been looking for for a long time. I watched it almost obsessively in early high school, but when I tried to find it one day, I found out it was deleted...

except it wasn't. It must have been privated or something, because when I looked up OP's name on DuckDuckGo, I came across his official site, which led to a video gallery where some of his more "serious"/"artistic" videos were embedded... which led me back to his YT channel, where I found out the vid I was looking for came back! Huzzah!

So here it is. Brings back a lot of nostalgia for me. (However, I will warn you that some of the imagery might be a bit unsettling... But that's no problem. We're all on the freak site for freaks, right?)

(also more serious CW for flashing lights/colors, nudity, loud noises at the end)

I know the title + icon combo might make it sound like I have severe beef with the orgs, but I don't. The only thing I have beef with is my brain in this case.

Anyways, I'm starting to contemplate not doing Sakura Exchange this year. I'm not feeling as big of a spark towards any of the fandoms I'd nominate at the moment, which would kill any motivation to put out good-enough work for my recipient. Or at least, would eat up a ton of mental resources.

Then again, maybe things will change in a week or so when signups actually start. I don't know. My brain's weird like that. Plus, I still have the hyperfix rolling for my Finish What You Started piece, so maybe once I get what I want from that done over the weekend, it'll free up some space for me to think about potential Sakuraex pieces. We'll see.

(oh, speaking of: keep an eye in your inboxes. I got a WIP on the way. Probs gonna upload it tomorrow night.)

Guess who got their monthly writing goal done? It's meeeee~

Yep, you heard right. My goal for March was to finish fully writing the outlined paragraphs in my leftover WIP from 2021. For y'all paying attention, that's before I got this account. Before I got into Metal Gear. Before I got a full-time job, even. And now that there's an excuse for me to finish it (the Finish What You Started event I mentioned in the previous entry), I'm gonna actually get it done.

Now my new goal is to expand the outlines that I'd barely set out, and then write those out in full. Might start tomorrow, might save it till nexgt weekend entirely. We'll see how shit plays out.

Just a quick and dirty slightly-over-drabble about that one concept art of Venom Snake with the diamond earring. Wanted to write this scenario for a while, as well as get more used to writing shorter fics, so here you go.

Word count: 123
Rating: G
Warnings: Past character death, Mission 43 (MGSV) spoilers

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Holy shit it's another full album~

So I first heard about this band from Tumblr after two of their songs were on a "worst song" poll tournament series (which no longer exists -- the mod deleted it before it could even reach the semifinals. Which sucks. But ehh). But much to my surprise, one of the songs actually fucking BANGS. Did a bit of digging and checked the band out, and I can safely say the rest of the album bangs just as much as the song that introduced me to them.

Music-wise, this band's got a lot of influences wrapped up in an avant-garde metal package, from the thrashiness of "Leg Scratch"'s main riff to the vaguely-gothic Evanescence-y stylings of "Screamin' in the Gleamin'". There's even some K-pop influences in there, which the band proudly touts on their YouTube description. The lyrics are quite entertaining, with most of them dealing with mundanities such as finding a dress with pockets, being rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery with embarassing wardrobe choices, and having a psychotic break while consuming a few too many vodka-infused gummies.

Overall, I think this band should definitely get more appreciation. This is their only album (not counting an EP they'd released earlier that contains the other song in that "worst song" poll -- which sucks a lot more than the one introducing me to the band as a whole, but I get the feeling that that song was just a joke, so ymmv), so I hope they get to put out more soon!

(edit: turns out I lied about the EP having the shitty joke song. It was just a standalone single.)

Standout tracks: "Imimmortal", "Leg Scratch", "Screamin' in the Gleamin", "LTD"

Kinda found myself getting in a slump today, so I did a few things to ease myself out of it. I did do some chores, but that's boring, you don't wanna hear about it. So let's get to the fun shit:

- I hauled out my Ancient Windows 7 Clunker Craptop Supreme and started up my semi-annual replay of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: The Contempt of Court. (I say "semi annual" because I skipped 2023, even though it did spark some activity in the area of my brain that controls my hyperfixes that year.) If you're an AA fan that hasn't heard of this game, I STRONGLY fuckin recommend you play it. Sure, the gameplay of the first case might be buggy, but it is A+ in all other respects. I have an "iceberg" post in the works that I'm probably gonna put out once I finish playing through it this time around, and I also have a fanfic WIP for it that I'm hauling out of the grave for Finish What You Started this April (after I get through with my current WIP. hopefully). Might also put out a ship manifesto for one of my big ships in it. IDK, depends how I feel. But if you've got a Windows machine (preferably one that's slightly out of date, as I'm not sure how well it'll work on Windows 11), PLAY IT. Please. I'm fuckin dying over here...

- I also finished the 2007 Devil May Cry anime. Yeah, I'm into DMC now. It had the makings of a potential hyperfix (a: it being a Fandom-In-Law bc of folks I follow on Dreamwidth and Aethy, b: me having dipped my toes into it a few years back -- about 2018-2019, I wanna say? but not making anything of it until now, and c: it having a banger soundtrack), and in the latter half of January it crept back into my brain and now I can say I'm enough of a fan? Kinda? But I digress. Anyway, the anime was pretty decent. Episodes 7-8 were a slog to get through, but other than that, it was pretty enjoyable, albeit kinda formulaic. And it deviates quite a bit from the source material, but I didn't really mind. Maybe once I get Proper Gaming Device I can immerse myself more into the series proper.

- Speaking of Proper Gaming Devices, I found out that I can pay for a SteamDeck with accumulated Steam Card money, so I'm either gonna start loading up on those, or... I can get something different. I just learned about the Retroid Pocket, which is an Android-based multi-emulator handheld that fits into my budget way better than a SteamDeck, and aligns more closely with my current gaming tastes. It all comes down to where my tastes end up in a few months' time. For now, I'm still leaning towards the SteamDeck, but I'm keeping the Retroid as a second choice.

- I went on a silly little walk for my silly little mental health. No pictures this time, since a) I didn't take any, and b) it doesn't look pretty outside, unless you find some semblance of beauty in half-melted snow and barren suburban sidewalks. But the fresh air was nice, and I needed to get some cardio in. Hopefully if the weather cooperates within the next few weeks I'll be able to get more in.

- I also cooked up an AMAZING grilled cheese sandwich for last night's dinner using this recipe on Tumblr. I'd actually made it before, but this time I managed to avoid burning the garlic, which ruled.

- Finally, I have the draft? script? etc. for my tattoo appointment request. I'm glad the artist I chose takes Insta DMs and provided a template for them, which saves me a fuckton of social spoons. Now all I have to do is send it sometime within the next week. Or two, But I do have the timeframe for the actual appointment ideally set for March, which narrows down when I can send the message without looking like an idiot. Hopefully I can get over my Discomfort With Putting Myself Out There in due time.

That's all for me. See you when I have something else to say.

Well, it's 2024. First week's gone pretty standard (if hectic, since work was kicking my ass for the first three days). Figured I could use this as an excuse to lay out my intentions for the year, as well as keep track of how much I've stuck to last year's goals.

NEW (ish) SHIT I'M GONNA DO (hopefully)

- Find a way to play actual games on my computer/get a new device for gaming purposes. Probably gonna be the former. I'm gonna look into virtual machines for my shitty Macbook (which isn't *that* shitty tbh, but you can't really do much with that OS). If I can't get the hang of Linux, I'm gonna go with Windows 10. If I do get the hang of Linux, though, I'm gonna install it on my crappy Windows 7 clunker and use it for that (because Steam apparently wants to kill Windows 7 support). I strongly considered getting a SteamDeck, but I realized that even the cheapest model would probably not fit into my credit limit, so I'm probably gonna put that off until the credit card company ups my limit. Either that, or I'm gonna go the slow way and see if I can buy it via Steam gift certificate money that I save throughout the whole year. Whatever. Either way, I'm determined to get back into actual gaming soon.

- See if there's any classes/courses pertaining to my interests that I can attend in person (or at least, online in a group setting). I NEED to have actual social interaction outside of work, home, or the Internet. Mom recommended me going to group classes for something, so I'm gonna see if that works for me. I do know that there's a jewellery/metalworking course that operates really close to one of the places I work, so if that's in my budget, I'm gonna go for that. If not, I guess I'm gonna have to do more research.

- Get more comfortable with displaying my interests around the house. For a long time, I've largely confined my expression to the Internet/private spaces in my house. Probably as some sort of low-level anxiety/fear of getting negatively judged for what I'm into. But I saw an article from Devon Price (this one) that said getting used to this low-level discomfort is a good thing, and can lead to other opportunities to do things that are (relatively) harmless yet come with the fear of being judged/censured/etc. So I'm gonna follow that advice and see where it leads me, and I figured a good place to start would be displaying my interests more often, even if I feel uncomfortable doing so.

SHIT I'M (hopefully) GONNA KEEP DOING:

- Creating, creating, creating! I've put out a LOT more fics in 2023, and hopefully I can keep that trend going. I've signed up for fic exchanges and other events, so that'll be a good motivator for keeping my creative juices flowing.

- Working out! After a long-ish period of not keeping up my workout schedule in 2023, I did start getting back into it in December. So I'm gonna continue and see how long I can keep it up. And maybe even expand it a bit, because I've got some parts of my body that I feel like I could improve with a little extra exercise. So seeing change in that respect will be a good motivator to keep going.

- Tattoo plans! I've got the design, the artist, AND the timeframe figured out. Now all I have to do is actually book the appointment. Hopefully I can have it in by late winter/early spring.

Also I changed up my Dreamwidth theme and added a few more icons (including the one that graces this entry). So yeah, that's fun~

HHHHHHHGGGGGGHHHHGGGGNNNNGGGGRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGKKKKKHHHHHHHHHH

My ass cannot fucking WAIT for MGSX to get underway. The tagset updated and I SEE A TON OF GOOD SHIT AAAAAAAAAAAAAHH

The one downside is that I'm probably gonna have to get good at writing short shit because some of my ideas get too big in scope to properly squeeze out within a 1-month work period

but still

(Jimmy Barnes in "Big Enough" voice) AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA