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The grocery store has advent calendars out, which I didn't really think about aside from 'oh, I want an advent calendar' and only later did I remember it's September.

In the spirit of daily surprises, however, I decided I'll just give myself something every day. Except instead of acquiring new things, I'll just partake of something I own that I've at least mostly forgotten about or never gotten around to.

So far I've watched (and regretted) an entire anime series, Fractale, and then a loose disc of the Monster Musume OVAs... I have Earl & Fairy in right now which I've seen and like but I certainly don't recall picking up the DVDs. Tomorrow, since I won't have finished Earl & Fairy, I'll go with a book or comic. I think there's a mound of Robotech comics up on the shelf but they could actually be L* or something else.

From now until Xmas, or I run out of things, or I collapse under the weight of media I wish to experience, there will be adventures. And probably bits of regret.

The pile got too high again...

Gundam SEED Destiny (Original Version + Final Plus) - watched pretty much as canon review for war-gaming and there were a lot of things I kinda forgot or found more interesting this time around. Anyway, Freedom only makes sense with Final Plus and now I'm wondering if they just edited it into the remaster. Actually, I think I started with the Remaster but switched to the original because I like the old English dub (and British!Arthur) a lot.

Char's Counterattack - again, canon review for war-gaming, I swear. It's been some time and I both love and hate everyone and Gyunei is such a jealous boyfriend, lol.

Natsume's Book of Friends (Season 1 & 2) - delightful, though it seems like only a couple more seasons are on disc and the rest streaming-only.

A Magical Girl Retires (Park Seolyeon) - enough people talked about this that I got curious and oh, it's an entire journey and then some in like 150 pages. At it's heart, it is very much a magical girl story and the route to the ending is never entirely obvious.

Jianghu (L Si X Xi Y) - baihe short story, interesting and delightful in weird ways. (More Info)

Broken Controller #4 - zine about retro-gaming. I wanted to like Broken Controller but it became very image-heavy with difficult to read layouts. I know the group doing it are still doing zines and I wish them success but they just weren't for me.

Samurai Pizza Cats - this was a stupid lot of fun; I can't say I paid close attention to every episode but this was great to have on in the background in general. Absolute kudos to the writing team. If you don't know the story, Kyatto Ninden Teyandee underperformed in Japan and a lot of the production materials weren't kept. When it was licensed for an English syndication, it arrived with partial scripts and audio. The writers literally just made everything up and dialed the ridiculous to 11. It does not 100% hold up, but it's very very good.

Twittering Birds Never Fly - a BL movie that kept catching my eye on Sentai's sale page. It was okay to watch but that's about it.

The Da Vinci Code - was given this, after being asked if I'd seen it. I promptly described what I think is actually the plot of American Treasure and then realized that. Anyway, nothing about this felt original but this was an entire genre for awhile, too.

American Graffiti - a loaner that shoot, I need to give back. Didn't get into at first, enjoyed it by the end. Nice cars, good music. I think I'm the wrong generation to really some of the nostalgia, though.

Bastard!! (S1, new anime) - a surprisingly good adaptation! Apparently quite a few of the voice actors went uncredited because it is a horny, mature show. But it's a different actor doing dub-Darsh which is a little disappointing because I still hear OVA!Darsh in my head from time to time. (dub!Darsh sounds a smidge young, which is kind of interesting all around) Spends the entire season telling a thorough version of the story that's raced through in the OVAs.

and then last quarter's JFF titles:

Ito - about an awkward introvert who goes to work at a maid cafe and everything that happens along the way.

A Handful of Salt, The Genealogy of Sake - two documentaries.

Three Sisters - family drama, where I never quite worked out how every single bit of the drama but there was a lot, but also a lot of good moments between the sisters.

Love & The Grand Tug of War - another family drama, also centered on a cultural festival that culminates with a city-wide tug of war.

Nabbie's Love - family drama, and all of these family dramas are set in specific parts of the country so also cultural dramas, with a wall-banger of an ending. This one had a lot of traditional musicians in various roles so there was a lot of music and song.

Of these, I probably liked Ito the best. I enjoyed watching all of them, as well as all the little cultural shorts explaining more about music and food and festivals and art, but none of them really hit the same spots as some previous JFF films.

fandomgiftbasket has all the baskets posted now, so I'm skimming through to see what I might be able to fill.

The folks who made the mobile game Grimlight are about to launch a TCG, Echoes of Astra on Kickstarter. I don't need another TCG but I'll definitely watch and see how things go for them and probably end up with a starter.

Still deciding on Wares Blade (TTRPG) but there's time. I'll probably just get the basic hardcover.

I've possibly either finished Starfall, or finished him for now. He's on his shiny base and while I feel like I have a lot of leftover parts, some of them are because I cannot make him look as cool as some of the promo stuff and some are because of how runners work. I suppose I'll figure out where he's going to get displayed and go from there with packing the rest up. He does have a lot of decals but honestly, his stark darkness is a big part of his draw.

Visited a trio of cemeteries earlier, two on purpose and one on accident. The latter was very small, in extreme disrepair, and managed to be an absolutely overwhelming liminal space without feeling in any way creepy, scary, or upsetting. Of the other two, one was an old but active township cemetery and we darted out quickly when suddenly a couple dozen cars arrived for a service. The other was possibly also a township cemetery. It, too, was old but still active. And somehow surprisingly difficult to find, which was how we ended up at the small, liminal space cemetery. (Except getting back was very easy! Looking at the notes and book I was working from, the addresses were hysterically incorrect, maps drawn wrong, etc. So I wrote in some new notes but wtf. At least the farmers we kept encountering were all friendly.)

Semi-related,

spook_me is open for sign-ups. No clue what I'm going to write, but something.

Time has gotten away from me so here's what I've done this week:

• my dad put up my new bookcases on Monday, and as I was ahead of my clearing schedule and had emptied out my original divider kallax, put three inserts into that
• I then cleared my dining table by putting 90% of that into aforementioned kallax inserts
• I take down a large painting frame with the intention of putting some smaller posters into it. I line them up. I know in my heart they are going to slip the instant I put the frame upright but I believe. They slip. I celebrate this non success by getting down another painting frame and replacing the posters much more successfully in that.
• I got a handful of figures out, mostly statues. I need to figure out what's going in my tall bookcases, my short bookcases, and what's going in the original kallax when double sided transparent acrylic inserts arrive. I also need to put the figure boxes in the bottom of my original kallax but can only do this now when I can easily access it with an empty dining table. So I pivot and spend three and a half days getting nineteen nendoroids and two figma out of their boxes.

(This isn't even all of the nendoroids or figma I own, lmao.)

I would not recommend getting out nineteen nendoroids somewhat consecutively to anyone. It was enjoyable in that I got to see my treasured possessions and pose them as I've always wanted to do, but I feel very discombobulated from time loss and exhausted: which should not be the case with small pieces of plastic but also unsurprising. Nendoroids are their own little nightmare as of themselves, especially when pegs do not fit or refuse to go in.

Still, the majority are temporarily displayed, and I can figure out what I want where with the visual assistance of being able to see everything accurately in size. The only figures I haven't freed are the ponies, Estelle, and a couple of nendoroid/figma. I also started going through another cupboard where most of the bigger box nendos were hiding out... it's on my list of things to do.

I have early groceries tomorrow and am also getting some sealing adhesive for bookcase door gaps, which will fully protect from dust getting in. And some hanging tape for the picture frame fiasco. But I may truly need a break for a week, we'll see.

My body also rejected three foods this week, one which was previously fine but is a case of natural flavourings striking again, another which should have been okay but wasn't, and one that was somewhat expected, so that's been, as always, super duper fun.

I know I had something that I wanted to mention... Ah well.

It's honestly kinda nice that the work-week is half over already. Last night wasn't bad at all, either, just normal-busy with a few bits of bad timing. I ended up taking a few bits of a model kit (Starfall) in because while I don't mind gently reaming a single tight hole with my hobby knife now and then, fourteen of the same part is kind of pushing it for patience and safety. So I found an appropriate drill bit in the big box and just quietly took care of all of that between calls. ^^;;

I'm in a couple of gunpla discord servers and in one of them, a handful of people are basically playing tariff-chicken and reporting back. Current (and more research is needed) studies suggest that if a holy grail pops up on Suruga-ya in the $100-150 range, or an order around that amount is made, fees+tariffs pretty much negate the free shipping. Obnoxious but not horrific.

bitesizedcleaning has their Annual September Stampede running right now. I haven't actually started on it, but I do want to give it a try. Flat surfaces... ^^;;

Oh, now I remember - I don't think I even mentioned this, but there was an anime convention last weekend a couple of towns away. I didn't go because it was a first year con, looked messy, and the single-day badges were something like $60. ~~in this economy?!~~ Anyway, some Youtuber guest of theirs was running a non-sanctioned predator sting and while a couple of people were arrested after being confronted, one of them was carrying a (completely legal) gun. I guess that while the police and con-ops were cooperative, they were also very much like 'uh, don't actually do this and we didn't think it'd be during con hours what the actual fuck'. So yeah I do not have words for how catastrophic that could have been and I am very glad I didn't go.

The grocery store had a small rack of clicker-style Sakura Gelly Roll pens; I immediately bought a pack. (I will probably buy more.) Of course, being very used to normal Gelly Rolls, I keep trying to yank the 'cap' off them. ^^;; I'll get used to it... (I hope.)

I am not entirely sure, but last night might've been the first time in my years that we didn't even get close to finishing shop start-up. It was bad. It was not personally terrible for me; I was busy but never overwhelmed. But overall, yeah, machines hate long weekends. Or, perhaps, also do not want to go back to work after them. ^^;;

Of my international Kickstarters/Crowdfunding, one just went 'oh fuck US shipping dunno what I'm gonna do but I'll let you know', one said that a few weeks back, and I've not heard a peep from the last that I can think of. (That one is a ways out, though.) At least two other int'l projects are launching this month. I don't know what options will even be. (I wouldn't blame the one smaller one for just excluding US backers altogether.)

I picked up a September Bingo card on

lyricaltitles. Much like last year, I expect the fun will be picking songs and I won't actually manage to write anything.

Alas, August ended up being a huge pile of Too Hot, though I did get to go see the local Gunpla Builders World Cup event mid-month.

( August Plans )

Seriously, there are a lot of days I got home from work, took a shower, ate something, and laid in bed looking at pictures of Gundams til it was time to sleep. (At least it wasn't all doomscrolling?)

Anyway, September...

( September Plans )

Again, posting this before it gets lost...

It is the weekend. Whew.

Fri - adulting. Follow up Dr's appt & updoot in meds but everything trending good, no other problems. Mailed stuff. Bundled insurance to save ~$200/yr. Farmer's market!

The weather has cooled into False Fall, which I will take, since even though Second Summer is surely waiting, it means we are off Hell's Front Porch.

Sat - adulting? Home improvement store with my father. Lunch with

purplehellebore for one last bit of birthday. (I guess I am finally older?)

I want to set a goal for myself for

smallweb September, as far as archiving goes, but idk what yet. I would like to get things archived... (ETA: goal of 'archiving some stuff' set, lol)

Working on Starfall again, and I guess I'm ready to try painting my IIBB project. I know I'm running out of time there. ^^;; Humidity continues to thwart my ass but maybe I can start hand-painting some small bits and see how it goes.

And I'm going to post this before I decide not to bother. IDK why posting has gotten so something, but I suspect increasing General Universe Fatigue.

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Book Report & Media Roundup, September 7th Edition

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I'm an expert at nendoroid assembly now, ask me anything

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