Category Archives: Random Randomness

Muffins!

we gon talk about the muffins

Can I clarify what happened so we can stop talking about the muffins?

Yes. Yes you may.

I made pumpkin cinnamon rolls the other day. They rose so much that they overflowed off the tray. Anyway, my oven is bonkers: gas mark 1/2 on the middle shelf is equivalent to gas 7. I don’t know what the problem is, but it gets super hotter than it should in there. I put them on the lowest shelf, but they still got kinda burnt on the top while still soggy underneath. I realised afterwards I should have flipped them over, but never mind. They’re still yum, and I’m still overeating them, so…

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Farewell, My Gameboy

RIP my GBA SP.

Remember I was all, “Yays! I have the same GBA as Edgey!”? Well, I violated my one cardinal rule: if you don’t want something to get broken, don’t let the kids touch it.

edgey has a gba

Tiny has recently become obsessed with playing Sonic Advance (she’s an Amy fangirl like I was). And so far, it had been fine. She’d play the first level, then put it away. I don’t know what happened this time.

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Dress-Up Dollies

I felt like making some dress up dolls for Tiny.

dolls-trace
I had to do a bit of cheating here. I mean, I could have drawn it all freehand, but you know what my skill is like and I didn’t want to be here all day. Somehow, even though I traced it, the model went from front-facing to slightly turned. Oh well. It’s nothing less than you should expect from me. Anyway, I freehand drew the hands and face. The feet came out a little too chunky. Tiny said she didn’t want toes, which was a relief as I can’t really draw them.

dollies-nue
I traced the sketch using my lightbox to create two dollies. I forgot to fix the right hand on Daisy. Yes, that is Tip-Ex under Stephani’s foot. Actually, even the naming was a happy little accident. When choosing the skintone for Daisy, I tested out the coloured pencil on the side, thinking that that part would be cropped out… It clearly wouldn’t. So I used washi tape to cover it, and thought I might as well turn that into a name tag.

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Why is Kurain Perpetually Broke?

This is something that really makes no sense. Kurain channellers literally shapeshift into the person they’re channelling. Think about it. People already spend thousands on these scam mediums in the real world.

Imagine a world where you can literally meet up with a late loved one. Where you can physically touch them, hug them, hear their voice. People would pay their entire life savings for such a chance, people would go into debt to hold their deceased child one more time.

And yet the village is decorated with scrolls and screens giving tips on saving money, and Maya is constantly cribbing money off Phoenix like the freeloading wench that she is.

Why aren’t they minting it? Phoenix is always broke because he’s a big softie who keeps taking cases pro bono and has to pay rent and bills for his flat and his office and is constantly bankrolling Maya. What’s the village’s excuse? No, like, seriously, I would pay money just to see my old budgies again. Kurain should be rolling in money. Their channelling is not a secret. They take clients, we know this from canon. They even had a public exhibition.

Kurain should be the wealthiest village in the country. Why does none of this make sense?

JAYWALK — Ikanaide Lyrics English Translation

恋なんてきっと一度もしてはいなかった
koi nante kitto ichido mo shite wa inakatta
I've certainly never been in love

好きじゃないって気づくまで
suki janaitte kitzuku made
I've tried to be in love,

好きになろうとしてただけ
suki ni narou to shite ta dake
Until I realise that I'm not

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六甲颪に颯爽と蒼天翔ける日輪の

日本に、野球があれほど人気があるのは最近始めて知った。あの関西弁の古い教科書で阪神ついてよう教えてくれる。 「六甲おろし」の歌詞もあるんや。教科書は１９９５年に出したから、タイガースは下手やとゆうたけど、この頃阪神タイガースはもっと上手くなりそう。

小学校と高校で、ラウンダーズを遊ばなあかんかった。ごっつ嫌いやったわ。

「Kristy and the Walking Disaster」を読んできた。野球は少し面白くなった。せやけど、ラウンダーズはまだ大嫌いやねん。学校のいやな思い出やから。バドミントン以外、体育一般に嫌いやったねん。

I Watched an English Dub Episode of the Gyakuten Saiban Anime

I watched it. I didn’t like it.

First the good. Judge: Perfect. Lotta: always ma girl.

Gummi: awful, his voice did not match his personality or appearance. Nothing like the Japanese voice actor, who was exactly as you’d expect Gummi to sound. Larry: bad. But his “uh-oh” was perfect in this episode. Edgey: not horrible, but his voice was deeper in the game. It still didn’t quite match what I expected. It’s on the same level as the Japanese dub, I guess. Maybe easier on the ears, though.

Phoenix and Maya. What can I even say? Well, a picture says a thousand words, so here:

sonic-court

All I could hear the whole time was Sonic and Amy. Bad, bad casting. I know Phoenix wears royal blue and has spiky hair. That’s not the point. I don’t know how the casting went for the English voices in the game, if they were professional actors or not (they just got Capcom staffers for the Japanese one), but I do wish that they had at least tried to cast actors who sounded like the originals. Phoenix’s in-game objection is so strong. The anime version is pathetic. Our boy deserved better!

Although, looking at the cast list, they actually got different actors in for the Gyakuten Gaki Turnabout Promises episodes, so props to them for that! I might rewatch those episodes in English if I can find them.

How Layton Forever Changed Ace Attorney

I really enjoyed this video by Bowl of Lentils. Learning about the behind-the-scenes goings-on really explained a lot about how I felt about the later games. So Takumi wasn’t even involved with Edgey’s games or anything after GS4 in the main timeline. So that’s why Edgey’s personality shifted somewhat.

I had a little moan about this before, but Edgey’s game was such a disappointment. As I said, I was expecting something more in the stable of the Kyle Hyde games, but instead we got what seemed like a cheap imitation — well maybe an expensive imitation (I’m glad it was only £10 in the bargain bucket, though). Courtroom game mechanics, but with no courtroom. It’s like a bootleg, right? Edgey was such an annoying sticky beak, it really bugged me. I’m not sure he really needed a game at all.

You know the saying, “Never meet your heroes”, and I think Edgey is one of those characters that’s better for having an aura of mystery around him. Continue reading →

Figure Skating Fun

Oh, I loved watching figure skating as a kid. I grew up during the heyday of Torvill and Dean. I went skating about 3 times, and I think it was on the second time that I managed to skate in a straight line without holding on to the rails. What a waste. Anyway, I kinda just grew out of watching figure skating as I got older.

But recently, Poppen Atelier made a Yuzuru Hanyu doll (by the way, his last name is written ha nyuu, so it’s pronounced Ha-nyuu, not Han-yu, and the first character means “wing” or “feather”, which is really cool, as I love it when people’s names match their jobs!). Anyway, she was fangirling him so much, I had to go see what the fuss was about. And I don’t know the first thing about skating, but I really like how hard he is trying. He’s very dedicated. I wish I could have that level of focus for anything at all.

I’ve always preferred watching pairs skating, but the women are nearly always bless your outfit, so it’s no go, but there is a channel called On Ice Perspectives, where the women/girls mostly keep their bums covered.

This one by a brother and sister team, was really nice to watch! It’s so impressive how they do all these complex moves and maintain perfect co-ordination!

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I Finished Series 1 of the Gyakuten Saiban Anime

I finally finished replaying AA2, and also caught up to the corresponding anime episode.

I have to say, the anime isn't all that good. I mentioned that in my last post about it. They changed a lot of things, and that reduced the quality of storytelling and character development, I think. Edgey's case seemed really rushed. If I'd watched these without having ever played the game, I don't think it would have made me all that interested in the franchise, to be honest. But maybe that's because I'm seeing it through the lens of already being a big fan of the OT. Anyway.

Watch out for spoilers.

Gyakuten Gaki

kids-defence
They gave us some of episodes of the three friends when they were kids. It was nice to see how their friendship was, but they changed a few things, and I didn't like that. I love how they keep the exact same hairstyles they had when they were 9. They're all ♥gottsu kawaii♥, all of them!

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Sweetpeas and Wagtails

Why can’t I ever get sweetpeas to germinate? I think I only ever germinated one, several years ago. This time I tried the baggie method, where you wrap the soaked seeds in a damp sheet of kitchen roll, and place it in a baggie, but four days later and nothing is happening.

sweetpeas won't germinate

I think one is actually getting mouldy. I am never buying sweetpeas again.

We had a really sunny spell a few days ago, so I sowed some pepper seeds — I’m not bothering with eggplants anymore — and I was hoping the warmth (I turned off the heating during the day. It was 26 degrees) would get things going, but of course, I fell for false spring again, because it’s back to overcast.

We have a repeat visitor in our garden from last winter.

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Be Careful if Learning Kansai-ben From This Book

This book, Colloquial Kansai Japanese, by DC Palter and Kaoru Slotsve, is great, and I see it recommended online a lot as a good resource, but please bear in mind, this book was published in 1995, and doesn’t seem to have been updated since then. As a result, a lot of the examples given in it are outdated, and no longer used.

kansai-han

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Using Kitchen Roll as an Air Filter

You know how HEPA filters get so filthy, so quickly? Techie Uncle saw my air filter and told me that I was wasting money, and kitchen roll is just as good. So I replaced the old filter with a layer of kitchen roll, but it was sooooo loud, and the fan is so weak anyway, it just didn’t seem worth it, so I packed it up again. When I can start spending freely again, I’ll just find a regular square fan, like this dude.

But one area it does seem to be working well is in my vacuum. The old HEPA filter was so clogged up with feathers and dust bunnies and clay dust from a project I filmed last year and still haven’t finished editing.

filtervac3
This is after washing

All I did was add a sheet of good old cheap Wilko kitchen roll over the new HEPA filter.

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