Category Archives: Random Randomness

My Scrapbook

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.

scrap1-foxes

Close up:

Continue reading →

Covid, Old English and Fleshing Out the Universe

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 Caught the Dreaded Lurgy, Plus Idiot Government Policy

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 reading →

I Sunk Your Battleship!

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.

Continue reading →

Blast From the Past: The Minitz Mix ‘n’ Match Watch

minitz mix n match watch

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!

clarissa darling's watch

The Dark Side of Dhar Mann

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.

Dhar Mann Makes Kids Struggling With an Ill Loved-One Feel Bad

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.

Continue reading →

Micah and Zaid

Micah and Zaid from Rune Factory 3. I love the dynamic between these two. Micah gets all snarky and acts like he's above Zaid's "man's journeys", but you know inside, he's all "HELL YEAH!". Anyway, apart from Zaid's hand looking a little awkward, and Micah's looking a little small, I'm really happy with how well this came out. This was also where I experimented and discovered this painterly style. I used this technique on later pictures, but I think I forgot to note down the settings I used. So I forgot how to do it.

micahzaid

Micah and Zaid belong to Marvelous Entertainment. This is a fanwork only.

Revisiting My Old Sketchbooks 2 — Dreamsong Edition

It's time to take another trip down Memory Lane, as I look back at my old artwork. Some of these pictures date back to 2008. So well done me, it's been 12 years since I started Dreamsong, and I'm still not done.

Here is an old sketch of Apollo. This was meant to be the scene in chapter 4 when Palutena asks if he knows what's going on. I didn't use this, because he just doesn't exude enough sliminess. He's supposed to be way more repulsive!

apollo

Continue reading →

What is This Book? — (Re)Create This Book Pt 3

I haven't really done any work on this for a while. See how easily I get bored of projects? So I thought I may as well post my last entries since it may be a while till I do any more.

So here is "Create Hope". Of course, I thought of Star Wars: A New Hope, so I drew moisture-farmer Luke. This was a really hard one. I'm not good at realistic portraits. I had to use the grid method, but even then, his left-eye was so hard to draw. No matter what I did, it always looked wrong. So I quit before I made it any worse. It didn't help that in the source image, Leia's bun was super-imposed over the left-hand side of Luke's face.

create-hope

I mean to seal this as it's soft pencil and I don't want it smudging, but I can't think of any way to incorporate the fruit rule without cheapening the picture, so I may have to break the rule in this one case.

Next is "Create an Upside Down Drawing". I drew a sloth. I mean to paint this with watercolour, as I've finally dug up my drawing pens, but the Luke picture is on the following page, and I'm so scared I'm going to manage to spill the paint onto it.

create-upsidedown

That's all I have for now.