Do you know what one of the biggest causes of micro-plastic in the ocean is? It’s shedding from synthetic fibres. I’m so fed up of seeing brands promoting their “recycled from plastic bottles! Saving the ocean one bottle at a time!” policy as something good.
All you’re doing is replacing large bits of plastic with tiny bits that will be ingested and inhaled by all sea creatures.
Continue readingThis is getting out of hand. Every time I go shopping, I discover more and more junk foods that are vegan-friendly.
So last week I went to Morrison’s to compare their doughnuts to the Asda ones.
Continue reading I only found out a couple of days ago that Asda doughnuts are now vegan-friendly! It’s been literally a year — yes, over a whole year, in fact — since I ate a doughnut. It was the two Crosstown ones that I bought with the £10 that they gave us instead of the Christmas dinner. A few weeks later we shut up shop for good, and so my steady supply of dougnuts came to an end. Those doughnuts cost £4.50 each, but my gosh, they were good. I would never buy them myself, though. Sometimes we’d get the leftovers. Good times.
Continue readingI love The Treasure Seekers. It’s as Clarice Bean says, when you read a really good book, you just want to read it all over again, and I did with this book. I reread it so many times in a row. Anyway, I found another copycat illustration. And it makes sense now, because this cover’s scene isn’t featured in The Treasure Seekers. But it is featured in New Treasure Seekers, in the chapter “Richard’s Revenge”, which is where the line drawing is from. Although both illustrators made a mistake. Dora wasn’t in on it. There should have been the four boys, plus Alice. See? When you copy someone’s work, you copy their mistakes, too!
Anyway, the original line illustration is by Gordon Browne and Lewis Baumer. I don’t know if either of those were the artist for the colour illustration, but something tells me not. The publisher, Parragon (who got the best English translation for Pinocchio by the way), doesn’t credit their artists.
I recently remembered that there’s a Gyakuten Saiban anime, so I decided to watch it. I saw a few clips of the English dub and wasn’t too happy with the voice cast, so I went with the subbed version. I don’t like Edgey’s voice. I know it’s supposed to be deep, but it sounds the wrong kind of deep. I dunno. It just doesn’t sound right. Maybe his English voice is better. Maya was a bit too high-pitched for my liking, but it’s kinda an occupational hazard for anime, isn’t it? I seem to remember her voice being better in the Layton vs Phoenix Wright trailer. Anyway, I’m only up to the second episode. So here’s what I think so far.
One thing that bugged me is that Naruhodo-kun (Phoenix) kept calling Chihiro (Mia) “Chihiro-san”, which he didn’t do in the game. He called her “shochou”, or, in the English release, “Chief”. I don’t know if they made the same mistake in the English dub. They also couldn’t make their mind up about Mia’s age. She literally aged down a year in one second, even though she was dead!
Here are some pages from my scrapbook. Originally, this was going to be a gift for someone. It's a good thing I didn't give it to them in the end, because it probably would have just ended up being given to their boss. Or stolen by a flatmate, because that is how this so-called friend treated not only my gifts, but my actual in fact property that they were only borrowing. I'm not bitter. What makes you think that? Sigh.
Anyway, enough whining. Let's look at the scrapbook!
This card I got solely because I loved the illustration. I'm a total sucker for pictures of the moon. I think it comes down to this book I read when I was about 14. It had a lot of moon imagery in it, and I think it was the first fiction book that made me cry. No, I'm not telling you what it's called.
Close up:
Continue readingKidnapped is a jolly good story. It's not as good as Treasure Island, but it's a ripping adventure nontheless. The image on the right is the Ladybird retelling, and I have a feeling that one came first.
Here's something I made a while ago. I was so busy trying to make a video out of it, that I forgot to take proper pictures. Duh. I think in future I should stick to regular blog posts. 1. it's easier and 2. it's easier. Anyway, vid at the bottom just in case.
Continue reading Ugh... Covid, the gift that keeps on giving. Every day brings a new surprise. I mean, I'm lucky I didn't get it that badly. I was still able to get on with chores and so on. I don't know what variant I got. I'm assuming omicron. Anyway, the first day I got a nasty headache and a mild cough. Like I said, my 15 year milk allergy cough was way worse. This wasn't even as bad as a normal cold cough. The headache was awful though. It was stabbing pains in my temples, and shooting pains down the centre of my head, and then stabbing pains at the back. The next day from when I woke up, I could smell puke all the time. Later in the day it changed to a vinegary puke smell, then just rotten vinegar. Things smelt and tasted normal, though. This only lasted a day, because the next day I lost all sense of smell, and I still haven't regained it. Most food tastes okay, if slightly off, but I have gone off carrots.
Then I started getting stabbing pains down my sides.
I keep getting light-headed spells. Continue reading
I had the mother of all headaches, a mild fever and a cough that isn't a patch on my milk allergy cough. I'm still waiting for my PCR test to arrive, and I'm already feeling much better, so maybe I'll be over it by the time it comes. Let's hope so.
What really bugs me is this idiot government's insistence that kids don't spread it. I caught it from my 8 year old nephew, who must have caught it from a classmate. Everyone else in the house has symptoms. We all caught it from a child, who himself caught it from a child.
If you live with or have been in contact with someone with COVID-19, you will not need to self-isolate if any of the following apply:
- you're fully vaccinated – this means 14 days have passed since your final dose of a COVID-19 vaccine given by the NHS
- you're under 18 years, 6 months old
- you're taking part or have taken part in a COVID-19 vaccine trial
- you're not able to get vaccinated for medical reasons
I fail to see the logic behind the last exemption. How does being unable to get vaccinated make you less likely to catch and spread it?
Continue readingCongratulations on becoming a republic, Barbados! Not sure why Charlie felt the need to go there during a pandemic with a new variant on the loose, but okay.
Recently I've been playing the first Ace Attorney again. I thought since I'm working on the translations again, I should refamiliarise myself with the characters' quirks. I blazed through the first 3 cases, and now I'm on Edgey's case and he's been on trial for over a week now. Poor Edgey. Anyway, a weird thing is in the fanbook, Larry calls Phoenix by his actual surname Naruhodou. But in the English release, Maya gets the Nick-name (see what I did there? Of course you did) from Larry. Before that, she calls him Phoenix. So where did she get Naruhodo-kun from in the original? I'll have to try playing that case again on the DS re-release. Also, in the original, Maya calls Larry by the nickname Yappari, instead of his name Yahari. But in the English, she says his name correctly as Larry, rather than Harry, which is what Mia and Gummi call him. It's strange how they changed that.
Anyway, I was recently looking up my blog online to see if it had been indexed yet (as you do), and came across this post by sophie_inthesky at AO3.
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I came across this on a Nostalgia Nerd video, and oh my Lucy, the memories! I wanted the watch on the right so much when I was 11. It was very Clarissa Darling-esque. My mum refused to let me buy it. She thought it was too trashy or flashy or something. She kept trying to persuade me to get a Sekonda granny watch like my older sister. I tried to compromise by offering to buy the one on the left instead, but it was no go.
I still want this watch. It's so 90s and cool.
Edit: here ya go!
If you've never heard of Dhar Mann, he's a Youtuber who makes what he calls "inspirational" videos. His channel appeals to kids, boomers and commentary Youtubers. They're mostly harmless rubbish. Trite, formulaic, unrealistic rubbish, but mostly harmless nonetheless. The formula is the same every time. Bully who seems irredeemable picks on an innocent victim. Then he's taught a lesson that makes him immediately see the error of his ways. Just like that, he does a complete 180. How this is going to inspire anyone, I don't know. Like I said, it's trite, formulaic rubbish.
The problem is when he comes up with videos like the two I'm going to highlight here. I'm sure Joinen did a reaction to both of these videos, which is how I found them, but I don't know if he's deleted them or I'm confusing him with someone else, because I can't find the videos anymore, and I'm not linking to the originals because I have no desire to financially reward Dhar Mann for these. You can easily find them on his channel if you're curious.
Let's start with the video titled Husband Abandons Wife With Cancer, What Happens Next Will Shock You. This could have been a really good opportunity to actually address what it's like having a loved one who's seriously ill.
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