camping_luna_marisa | Recent Entries

Consolidated month update due to weird month.

Computer hell:
I took the mini computer and put windows back on it. Thankfully, only a drive swap. Can go back to cachyOS whenever. was too annoying to setup audio dac properly on linux. not that windows is better, painted myself into a fun little corner with network storage, too. tiny low power device hopefully means I will listen to more music again. I kinda messed up my setup by moving a few computers around which meant the box with some more recent cd rips is sitting elsewhere and I had to pull them off. I think I might just ~~get a cheap flash drive~~ find a spare flash drive and use it for some ‘local’ storage of music. The whole collection is TBs, but the actual pool I play is smaller.

Music:

Coil - Vitamin C (yes, the band from Gitaroo Man) Honestly, the right sound i’ve been looking for right now. I’ve been meaning to find more of their work but for some reason it keeps falling through the cracks. It has the song that uses Gitaroo Man’s Legendary Theme. Their label has put it on streaming at some point, so it is available on apple and youtube music stuff.

Video:
Fun Fun Pharmacy:

33 Adventures in paintings, Hint at the fairies and magic being something only kids an see.
34 Soba propaganda, Cute announcer lady. Ok, but soba is actually good. I used to order all the time.
35 Mysterious hero type boy being weird about electricity has to interact with energetic outgoing little kid Potpourri. Actually like them mashing these up in this show.
36 Potpourri gets into trouble. with time. kid, you’re going to destroy the world if you’re not careful
37 Potpourri is a cat. I got it, but like… another I’m going “is there some cultural thing I could get if I knew something more? It felt like a fairy tale I didn't know about.
38 Potpourri tries to fix a married couple arguing with magic. she kinda makes it work? I guess?
39 Everyone leaves ohagi out overnight for a ‘gonmayase-san’ as a yearly tradition. She waits out for him and scares him! It’s just some wandering traveler type.
40 30min. special: witches party, Fukiko-san casts a spell to give potpourri a cute dress. Interesting to see her cast a big spell, the show does focus on potpourri using her own magic and learning from mistakes. (honestly, something this nice about making mistakes and learning from them is nice to see for kids media.) Amane arrives and is mean cuz potpourri is only an apprentice. all the grown up witches are nice and sociable. Except for one who was ostracized. who steals everyone’s magic during the grand invocation. (potpourri wasn’t part of it so isn’t affected) amane and potpourri have to solve the problem!
41: the town goes ice skating! a group from the town(with the kids) go to a frozen lake by bus. Potpourri has a cute beanie. Potpourri sees someone? under the ice and uses magic to get under and talks to a mermaid. theres an abandoned village under the ice, too. (I don’t know if it is used as an ice rink, I think it’s tooo big for that but there is a tourist spot lake town that basically is run by people who came from an intentionally flooded village. Sagami-ko in sagamihara, flooded when the river was dammed post-wwii or something.)
42: A traveling circus shows up in town. Potpourri is there immediately and runs into a clumsy magician. Ms. Fukiko gets an invitation from a mysterious customer. Potpurri first goes with friends and the magician’s bunny runs off. Niboshi saves the day? Cute episode where Potpuri tries to help but doesn’t know the difference between magic tricks and her magic.
43 30min special: Potpourri returns to bookstore to get a book for school. finds a weird picture book, gets sucked into it. like one does. ends up in a weird desert and Amane is there lost too. hooray. It doesn’t take long for Amane to get back to her usual self. THey travel between voids or pages to figure it out. Interesting special. lots of good faces, especially Amane. This gets into some real cool abstract art. Really cool for a young kids show.
44: something’s up with potpourri’s shadow…. hey give that back. Must’ve been weird to animate without it. actually, i’ve noticed budget shows skip a lot of shading but they had to really pay attention to shadows this episode and they make it look really good, also good sunset colors everywhere.
45: wind and pinch go flying. pinch’s family of spirits? flock? apparently they’re like birds.

Solitary Gourmet
S1E9: I’ve not been eating that well lately. not necessarily always unhealthy just… stuff could be much better. seeing food on video is sometimes healing. sometimes it taunts me. I want shrimp and seafood that looks that gooooooood. (Ordered some shrimp recently and it was making miss some teppanyaki places I used to go to… here! In north america! And not a chain restaurant! Also some stuff in Japan.) some awkward lines still, but not the worst. still… I kinda expect more from an official release, yaknow? like. I know suits treat ‘content’ and ‘brands’ like ‘product’ to move but I wish they’d remember they’re in entertainment and give a fuck. care for the work you paid for, damnit. people made that.

S1E10: Some nice food this episode. fried sausage (wiener fry) looked interesting. battered and such. I’ve looked up a giner pork recipe before and maybe I should try it. Restaurant was one of those super cheap places that make me jealous. Saw Aji fry on the menu and gosh do I wish I could just make that. Maybe if we make a trip out to a special market we can get some aji. Also saw ika fry and it feels like I should be able to get that but it’s been tough?

S1E11: Curry was the star food of this episode, but honestly the sandwich he gets in the middle of it all made me want to make it. I’ve been googling different japanese curry to change up the the flavor from my usual go-to of golden curry + vermont curry.

Comic:
Dagashi Kashi.
I wish this got a real good official TL. The scans were serviceable but definitely flawed at points. And probably still enough flaws that I glossed over because I’m looking at the art. I assume all the actual real dagashi, candy, and snack brand stuff would prevent that. (assuming stuff getting intl approval for the show but not the comic. Or the whole ‘we don’t think it’ll sell’ part. There’s so much cool stuff that doesn’t get licensed.) Years ago when the first season was new I put Hotaru high up on my list of characters I like. The comic art represents her a little better. Kotoyama is good at expressions and reactions. Hotaru's outfits were great. I think there’s something special to her character that just makes it work. (Or I really really really like her design and outfits.) I might try watching S2 again. Hajime Owari is now another favorite character. just a mess of a woman with glasses. She’s great. Kotoyama is great at sleepy looking women. well, I also thought Saya was good in the show but her character got a little more fun stuff in the comic but still needed more I think. Glad I finally sat down to get the ending. It’s fine. ends well enough but also still feels like it needed one more volume? Maybe need is too high. Would’ve been nice. (TBH, I was a little bit of a hotaru x saya shipper back then so more of their interaction would be what I’m looking for maybe. Also biased my feelings on the ending.)
Anyway I burned through it because I bought volume 1 and 2 of Call of the Night without looking up much. I think I only saw episode 1 of the anime but now I’ve read Kotoyama’s previous comic I’m good to go. However, this did end up with me buying a bunch of Japanese snacks. I now have a bunch of Umaibo. I tore through some Choco Baby.

(I rarely post about comics for many reasons, but among them is that I'm so tired of manga that exists to advertise the web or light novel. Kinda annoys me more than Anime that ends and never gets more. And those DO annoy me sometimes. A lot of the original material never gets TL'd or the scale is super different. Advert anime/manga adaptations can end and then there's like 20+ more volumes of stuff. Also just normal manga that get abrupt or awkward endings. I just don't feel like talking about it. I forget a lot of comics super quickly. If I take a break from stuff I like I will have to re-read stuff. And it's rare I want to talk about ongoing comics. I honestly should dip into western indie comics and find something.)

Current Mood: lonely

(again, moved more spoiler type stuff to the bottom because I haven’t found a satisfactory way to hide.)

Back was not fully recovered soooo more time in beeeed this suuuuucks. Back pain interspersed with shit i didn’t want to deal with and errands that took more out of me because driving 5-10min more ended up being cheaper even with wacky gas prices. fuck. Atleast after recovery I can get back to walking exercise.

also, I'm quitting the remaining gacha games I was kinda playing.

Comics:
Bad Girl Vol1: As cute and funny as expected, was glad to see Nikumaru’s faces. TL notes have the 100 yen = 1 USD thing and I’m glad they still use that even though it’s kinda been 120-160 for more than a few years now. Of the newer stuff I’ve gotten had better print QA than expected
Ninkoro Vol1: It’s so nice to see Hundredburger’s comic art. love it. Seen hamburger-chan and ninkoro illustrations over the years and it’s great to finally read the comic. Cute faces, fun timing. It’s good. For comedic entl manga it’s nice to have official TL. It’s nicer for print since usually the TL is better. (Not saying there aren’t ever any issues. I already know they barely get enough time to TL stuff. But it seems like on digital-only or ENTL digital replacements for ‘magazine’ comics some publishers have do not give a fuck. Comedy stuff is harder to TL generally, so the hope is nicer TLs will get more resources.)

Both I saw the anime last year, Enjoying the comics so far. So far like Bad Girl’s comic more, but it’s not like the anime didn’t add anything. I did love the voices and some of the animation, budget as it was.

Starting to wonder again what people are working with cuz I swear there’s extra aliasing and now I’m thinking of buying JP vol1s of a few things to compare. Like, BW pages look like they’re working from nice digital files on some of what I have but it’s been hinted at a few times that uhh… some people have to work with the same tools as scanlators. which uh. damn. really? I get older stuff being like that, but it’s surprising about digital era stuff. Surely some of these artists are using CSP, right? or something else. Did anyone follow in Kouji Kumeta’s footsteps and use Adobe illustrator or vectors in other software?

Game:
The Strongest Tofu - Become Tofu. Only played a little bit but it’s tofu. it’s a game. fun.

Video and Anime:

KEXP Live performance grab bag: Deltron 3030, Ak Dan Gwang Chil, Doom Gong, Castle Rat, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Aiko el grupo.

DOOM GONG was the surprise. Two drummers, keyboards also has an Omnichord. Also, theres a big gong.

Solitary Gourmet 4,5,6,7 - LMAO is this how shit is now? Japanese companies doing slightly scuffed but usable en subs on their first 3 episodes then putting badly timed awkward subs afterwards. maaaaan 何thefuck.
5 was still awkward, but slightly less so than 4. Maybe ESL and MTL??? (I’m not an expert.) The little bit of nihongo I can understand helps me watch this.
Oden (ep4) looks good.
ep5:The yakiudon in the show looks better than expected. I need to get bonito flakes and make it. oyakoodon also good, but this box style i’ve not seen before. I think I’ll have a higher chance of recreating bowl oyakodon. The food in the end segment is also making me hungry. I like the kind of building the ep5 restaurant is in. I love these layered buildings with multiple things going on. Maybe I’m too used to being in 70’s/80’s construction that aged into the 90’s/00’s that kinda looked like that here that the ones in japan are also giving me nostalgia? or does it just look cozy anyway?
ep6:I have a vague feeling that I did hear about this episode ages ago. seems ok. Also, the subs suuuuuck again. back to ep4 level of timing and awkward lines. No way I’m going to weigh in on anything not food with this quality. He first orders a combo katsu set with chicken and pork katsu and the crunch they recorded… I got hungry. I saw in the comments that the restaurant they used closed. ah well. aaaaAAAAA I’m missing japanese restaurants. (Used to live somewhere that had Japanese food like some of these places, but most closed or changed before we moved. had to start driving far… though, tbh. I’m sure a lot of this stuff is easier to digest if you walk everywhere instead of drive lmao)
7: the subs are the fucking weirdest ones so far. which mtl did they use for this one? Napolitan good, I’ve made it a few times and one that adds curry powder for a kick. I miss places with combo sets like that, he ordered napolitan spaghetti and hamburger. it comes with miso. post ep he orders the shumai with it and it also looks good, but also i just miss shumai. actually looks almost like bacon in the napolitan

Hitori bocchi no marumaru seikatsu 01 - Rewatched because it’s been a while and been seeing gifs of this show quite often. Better looking than remembered but also this version uses a ‘home video’ release so maybe stuff got cleaned up even more. Unsure if I’ll rewatch the whole thing but maybe I will.

Symphogear S1E10 - Still cool. Still gay. I need to get back to 1/week. maybe 2/week. I think I need that break.

Fun Fun Pharmacy - 28. Finally got to Amane. It’s good to put bratty kid as a foil to Potpourri, It’s a good combo. Still very kids show, but it’s still got that special energy to it. For a kid the world is full of a ton of unknowns. This show keeps magic slightly more unknown. Like something you know you will learn about in science class, but for magic that exists in the world and things. The short run time means that nothing is fully explained. It makes “things just happen” work well. Potpourri is given power and barely has control over it. She does save the day, but she causes problems. Works through problems. It’s kinda nice. I’ve still got a bit to watch but it’s just nice to get back to it after a break. Also the ED has the synth palette of a dark new age music song and it’s carrying so much of the energy of this show for me. It’s that digital keyboard. You know, that one. I need to figure out which one.

29, 30, 31,32.
29 is a full half hour block episode and it’s cute. Hear some bgm the show rarely uses. 30 Potpourri meddles in a (potential) couple’s love? Good faces all around. Potpourri can’t keep her mouth shut. 31 the traditional become tiny episode. 32 thriller for kids? maybe!

Mahou no Shimai LuluttoLilly - ep1 I don’t know if this is going to be as interesting as the old stuff I’ve been watching, but damn does it stand out by just being a pierrot magical girl show. It does look a little cheap at times and lacks energy. I think energy is the way to put it. Then again, some of those 80s shows did have dull moments but it’s weird in ep1. It’s weird in a show that riffs on Creamy Mami. I do worry they’re leaning too hard into these”80s” pastels… also maybe leaning on Creamy Mami. Yeah, watching all episodes Creamy Mami definitely helped because so far everything in EP1 has references to specifically that one. I only have Emi and Mami to reference at the moment. OP and ED are great but not what I like. Sorry, that sort of pop music just sounds like royalty free BGM to me because of over used royalty free BGM that sounds like that lmao. Like, I heard that stuff in cafes and food shops AND Japanese youtube. Unsure if I’ll keep up with this one, TBH. Going to give it the 3 episode check at least. Hmm. Maybe after I finish Momo2 I’ll go to Fancy Lala? Maybe episodes 2 and 3 will give me a hint as to what else they’re pulling from and maybe I’ll watch that.

Chie the Brat - Discs came in so I put on Ep1. Too much DNR but it’s not the worst copy? I’ll take having an Isao Takahata show available with ensub over nothing with this one. TBH it’s kinda amazing more of these didn’t show up during the previous anime dvd boom after Spirited Away. Just bring over all the Takahata and Miyazaki shows. IDK how much Takahata is in ep1, but it definitely feels the most different from other shows I’m watching. I don’t want to over credit him, but there are moments that made me think of My Neighbor the Yamadas. No bgm for a lot, it works. Great comedic timing. Kansaiben I’m not used to listening to. I’m sure later episodes will make her more.. bratty? So far just mouthy. Justifiably so. lol

Oh and now I want to get meat skewers. Mom was watching something with Filipino BBQ pork skewers and told me about it, saw a yakitori video, now Chie runs a skewer shop?.. I need to find some place that makes skewers.

Momo2 - ep40 funny episode where the real (well, actual fictional vampire) Count Dracula shows up for basically halloween. He doesn’t know this carnival where everyone is in costume though. Hijinks. Fun Mama moments. However as it was with some Japanese media back then.. maybe a sheet ghost guy looks too much… y’know, Damn, they were giving out a camper van for the costume contest. I want one of those.

41 Momo and a visiting girl end up going to the world of bad children and funny bad things happen. Momo looks cool for a bit. though without aging up, it’s a bad kid world. Though there weren’t really many kids there. lots of cute lil bad dude animal people.
42 Sorta little mermaid episode. Has lots of faces that remind me of other shows. (I need to go check credits if I can). Cute episode. Honestly really nice that they more closely tie back to bringing hopes and dreams back. That PEOPLE need to do things and change the world to bring back hopes and dreams. Not just the hero. Definitely don’t rely on ~10yo pink haired sorta human but technically not magical girls.

43 - one of the episodes I remember watching on youtube. without subs. half asleep. It might’ve been a “live premiere” format, not just rotating episodes available for two weeks. I only remember a few events from before becuz even Momo2’s mama is funny. There a lot of joke names that get translated as somewhere city. Something item. I love that places and company names are just vague someplace. That said, I really wish I could pick up what they’re saying better for these but I’m not catching it well from my speakers right now. I’ll open up jisho and try again later. One of those things that makes the show very japanese kids show but at times makes you wonder if they originally planned it for wider export (redub). I know some places got these but like. I think this could’ve done well in NA too. (I say this on the episode where momo pulls a gun lol)
Lots of wonderful faces this ep. Mama’s manuscript gets rejected from all the publishers so she freaks out and falls asleep. Retreats into her dreams. Thankfully their (fake) daughter is a dream powered magical princess. There’s also a tapir. Honestly a fun episode to have later in the show after hearing random bits of stories Mama has been writing. Lots of great animation. (Honestly, most of the Momo2 subs seem to be slightly better than the Momo1 subs. Again, I am NOT an expert and have bad memory.)

Comic 2:
Nagatoro would’ve been better if nerd boy kept the glasses and it ended sooner. I’m a “let the girl be cute WITH glasses” proponent, so I assume it works for boys too. I think it should’ve ended sooner not necessarily for a shorter story but so it would’ve finished years earlier lol. comic started in 2017, it took me out with them putting lazy kid shit from 2024 in. All I’ll say that nerdy kid did something that instantly dated the ending.
There’s some odd weak points in this one, but it’s hard to pinpoint. IDK, an editor or someone who could point out things or details? All I remember is thinking a few times “wish the author looked this up or asked someone.” Like. There are several meh and some good romance (comedy or not) manga where the author has some weaknesses in understanding women's fashion. Like can occasionally pull out a good outfit from reference but doesn’t know the right terms, situations, etc. This has a little bit of that issue. Like maybe the author or editor don't have the strength to make the main heroine really special.The romance felt less special as it went on. If it got to me earlier, it would’ve shaped some character preferences. Like. Almost Taiga Toradora level of influencing characters I like/design/fanstuff if it showed up around the same time as Toradora. (But even now I'm thinking Toradora is better.) More the relative sense to when I got into certain genres and still could dig into any comic with HS main characters. Before I dove into the pile of comics on the internet and emerged slightly bored of HS romcom with nothing extra special or funny. (Also, preferences changing.) The art is almost special enough, tbh. Really good visual gags. Characters look great. Just. I think I would’ve liked it if it took a more interesting turn. Nagatoro if it was written by someone weirder or hornier or both? Would I want a gayer version of this? yes. Almost am reading something like that but it’s way more in the direction of girls love gag manga than romcom.
I think this is supposed to be foundational media, but haven’t really gone back to check. Maybe the sporty part of Nagatoro didn’t catch on as much as I thought. Maybe the gal romcom stuff is just fresher in my mind.
I forgot and am choosing to ignore (once I remembered) the short lived wave of certain internet types using nagatoro avatars.

Current Mood: tired

I quit. well. will quit. Not that I was spending money on them but I was using these to waste time. Occupy time when i’m fidgety or can’t truly focus on something. This will be the final year. I have a tradition that started with me deleting a Puzzle & Dragons NA acct by selling monsters for MP, then blow the earned MP on a halloween unit that wasn’t that good, but i liked the design. This is how I ‘quit’ soshage gacha. I choose an ending. I was never with the current ‘meta’ in any of these games so there was no real game condition based finale. No dungeon, raid, or build to aim for. Also with how grindy some games are or with how stingy DeNa and others are I can’t consistently do something like that. For a while, I got every Japanese publisher soshage that slightly appealed to me or looked interesting on both US and JP Appstores. SquareEnix churned through so many multimedia franchises, it's amazing. Lost most of my games through shutdowns, I think? (then data loss, then just getting bored, then having to actively delete account)

JP Puzzle and Dragons

I kept P&D around because the collabs seemed funny to me for a while. A game with crossovers Project X Zone or VS Capcom could only dream of. M.U.G.E.N. shit. I have Hatsune Miku, Chun-Li, Hello Kitty, Gundam, Ranma, Sephiroth, Shermie, Garruk, Kamen Rider, and Lina Inverse. Wow howww coooool and interesting. (Then fortnight IP license era and Ready Player One movie got popular and that was no longer novel.) And when I do pick up and play something mid difficulty, honestly, the game is fun.

I might still pickup one of the console ones, but I can’t lie. The characters and jpgs are part of the appeal. I might not like it without certain fancy jpegs. The PAD base designs are suuuuuper generic. Not the most boring generic but they truly are, even some of the ones I like. And uh. None of the 'Dragons' part of the title ended up appealing to me. So when I heard that out of left field they added IM@S CG and it was a weird partial collab with normal PAD characters mixed with a few IM@S girls I decided it was time. Game’s been on a weird decline, good time to dip. Are there some jpegs and live2Ds I would’ve like to still roll? yes. but i’m no longer maintaining login to get stones anymore. I rolled and traded in stuff to get Ankira/HappyHappyTwin. I have a few stones left I’ll roll once the new academy gacha appears and I’ll stop maintaining it. I will keep the account around because it’s interesting to see what survives phone transfers. If it gets lost that way, it gets lost. I have data from my first goddamn smartphone (3G era!) being moved over. That’s wild. so many JP soshage do not give a shit and will lose your data on a whim, PAD is more resilient than expected.

Granblue Fantasy

What an interesting game. I honestly think there was something genuinely innovative here, I just wish it wasn’t tied to some intense grinding and a mid-high level insidious gacha. Some really great characters, some interesting writing, a real story. It is one of the rpg OSTs that started with Nobuo Uematsu, running in parallel with Final Fantasy XIV’s. Basically we have two teams of jrpg prog rock born from his style? (Well, having to work alongside Nobuo Uematsu’s style. And having him as a mentor?) GBF is also basically an MMO. Multiplayer raids and stuff. GBF is one of those games that takes up a ton of brain space like old World of Warcraft, MtG or some competitive game. Lots of stuff to look up. Lots of builds to make. Constantly evolves. Dedicated wiki.

Of those games, I think I might regret gbf the least. Relative to playtime, anyway. Like, the regret is still there but it’s not like WoW for me. WoW I constantly have to re-learn to forgive my past self every few months and remind myself I was going through a tough teen time when I started and a rough to awful time for most of my playing. Like the just going through shit vs real fun experiences ratio is rancid for WoW. (Thanks to the people who DID make it fun instead of suck.) I could’ve played so many better games in that time. I could've spent my parent's money on SO many better games. (Sorta, parents were weird with spending, and it took until I was a teen for them to start letting me get used games.) GBF still has that but at a smaller scale. By being a browser based phone game with mostly text to read it just slots in well. Like, i could say “oh, I could’ve played a gameboy or DS rpg more” or something. Neptunia on vita. But nah. Short playtime sessions. Rare were the times it consumed my attention. Besides, I wasn’t carrying around a portable all the time then. My phone was that. The browser based rpg part was genuinely interesting to me. It has jrpg cutscene moves and everything!

I’ll be liking fanart for years, may even look up new characters. I’m quitting because it got toooooo fucking grindy. The april fools event has a tough but doable boss and I once again don't have an updated team that can do it. Super done. First year in a while I couldn't. I was always fine with being behind ‘current’ stuff but the requirements to do basic small grinds requires so much shit and it’s not even Disgaea level fun. And I fall off Disgaea games! A lot! I just don't have it in my to tap through all those menus and figure out which raid does what. I gotta stop. I gotta make room. I have to play different things. Watch more. Read more. Make more.

I actually still haven’t solidified how I’m going to make my ending but anniversary just ended, april fools was fun, and idk if there’s something after the mom event I would want. I think I’m going to play these events and then slowly burn my sierotix throughout the year. (Siero Pick Ticket, basically a long term compensation for not getting what you want and the only way to get the few characters previously tied to soundtracks and bonuses). Xmas , valentines, and halloween have my favorite seasonal designs and if one of my favorite characters gets a new design I might just use it. I was also thinking of saving one ticket just in case but nah. I’ll use it.

Pokemon masters ex. Can i even say i was playing it? super ungenerous and lacking things to do. Only logged in on big anniversaries. I did the main normal story and a few events and got bored. I will forever thank it for putting more pokemon trainer fanart on the internet. Especially Mei/Rosa fanart.

Fire Emblem Heroes is a game I never really got into I just keep it around in case a certain cool artist says her fav character needs a vote in something. I did play it for a bit because the phone FE stuff seemed fun but the total upkeep and unit management bored me. Thankful it got art from some artists I like. FE designs are good sometimes, too.

Current Mood: blah

(combo update because have not been able to do much)
I don’t think that umamusume quiz got close enough to me personality wise, but design wise is definitely one I like. (Calstone light o, it’s not off but idk maybe i’m underestimating the variety of personalities available.)
Mostly a lot of recovery, cooking. Trying to get back into drawing again, but I think I’m going to return to a few shortcuts to get a project in some sort of state this year. Clipstudio 3d models as a base and draw over. I just need portraits with different poses for a thing. Also to be quite honest, I took a break after trying to “study” because I’m still kinda burnt out. maybe I never recovered. My drawing actually got worse. I saw a pen sketch face I did before I started studying and it was better. I think I will try to do real warm ups this time though.
Also I hurt my back for a little. Like, stuck in bed for a day and still kinda stuck. Gosh, I really haven’t had a solid week in a long ass time. Being fidgety in a chair makes it hard to focus.

Video:
Fun Fun Pharmacy: Got through a bunch, show is still charming. See tepidsnake’s bsky thread for the good faces.

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - had a few songs from a live KEXP set on this week.

Games:
So I decided I should try cachy os for steam proton on the tiny lenovo I have. it has a ryzen 3000 something pro with 8gig soldered ram and a mobile vega 6 radeon. low power, less ram than I’d like. However, the amd driver on linux is so much better than nvidia on linux, a bunch of games that just crashed and hung on nvidia just work now. Despite how low power it is, it actually runs some stuff decently. It runs most of my shmups. It runs MMXLC2 MMX8, and runs it basically full speed at low res, close to original res I think. You’d think that wouldn’t have trouble when I first tried to do steam proton, but it wouldn’t boot. Something in that menu just didnt work with proton+nvidia. Cotton rock n roll is too intensive for this chip, but it seems karous works fine. A bunch of VNs I wish worked on my mac laptop just work on linux. completely. Devil Dumper Doris seems to work, random touhou games seem fine. I do think theres some vsync or input oddities with a few games but I have not checked controller or vsync settings for every game. I don’t mind some tinkering, I had to do it on windows already.
As a bonus, somehow the linux amd driver has a feature that the mobile chips don’t have on windows anymore. It actually understands CRTs a little. Well, it knows 60hz is needed for some video and some software. It doesn’t try to scale things, it sends whatever output res you tell it to do. vsync works fine. So apparently this tiny box can handle 4:3, 60hz pc games more smoothly than my modern win boxes. Time to buy more 4:3 low spec pc games I guess.
Anyway, I wanted to just try it. the original purpose of the box was to hopefully replace an aging mac mini (5,2 with the mobile radeon dgpu and extra cooling issues) that i was dual booting into win7 for old software. However part of the reason for the dual boot was to run older software on CRT. Some games stopped working right for some reason and it started just freezing and dying. However the lenovo under windows could not handle the CRT without custom software and Win10 was annoying to work with custom res. Now the box might get more use as a general use low power machine for the summer months and get used to power the CRT sometimes. Some localized falcom games keep 4:3 modes so I’ll be having fun with that.

What was extra surprising was how many games I already own on itch and humble already have linux support and didn’t put up much of a fuss when I launched them. Actually the ones that took extra effort was an appimage.

The other gaming project this recnetly was trying to find a shmup to sit down, sit close to the screen, and get used to bullet patterns again. maybe exercise more to see if it helps me focus too. I also found out that black frame insertion did help me read some games, but definitely a crt’s motion clarity is unmatched. I think graze counter gm might be it, but like dreamer and cosmo dreamer have very smooth scrolling and motion. karous bullets are hard to parse right now. DFK BL has some real asshole quick bullets lol.

misc:
It’s been 0 days since I saw カメラマン TL’d as cameraman instead of photographer. (the context was also PHOTOGRAPHY...)

had eye trouble this week that required eye medicine so I sure as heck wasn’t watching much subtitled stuff unless it had big subs. (Anime/Momo2 update at the bottom because cut doesn't hide spoilers like how I would like)

Video:
I got in an episode of Solitary Gourmet when my eye started to get better. theres also something about the show that it doesn’t bother me if I pause and put it down for a while before going back to it later. usually I get frustrated if I have to pause mid-episode or have to rewind. Once again, I am hungry. That said, 2 for 2 this show has had atleast one item I like. I miss getting miso soup with extra flavor. I miss yakitori. I miss simmered saba. I miss going “sure, i’ll try that” on a fish I rarely see and it tastes good.

Angine de Poitrine - Live on KEXP: dual neck microtonal guitar? live loops to handle bass and guitar because the other half of the duo is a drummer?
Game:
More GBA grab bag while waiting for soup.
Summon night swordraft story, I was going to play this but IDK if it’s age or just room lighting conflict it was hard to see some games and this was one of them. That said I remember liiking these characters so I might actually play this one.
Super Mario USA Advance, decided to stick to the Japanese version because I assume i don’t need the english version but IF I need to read something it should be in one I might be able to read. Rather, I don’t feel like playing the english version. it just seems like it’d be more fun to beat a non-en version of one of these weird GBA ports….
Revisiting the GBA mario ports. I think every nintendo remake/port was weird. I know ppl who like Zero Mission even point out how weird some of the decisions were. GBA alttp was a little off, but I don’t remember exactly. all the more direct port mario advance games are just slightly too off. And it’s not just audio decisions. I think Mario 2/usa and 3 are the most… worth it? Atleast now I do. Not saying they're better or an improvement but those two are the most different or interesting, especially if those e-reader levels in SMB3 advance are mysterious. I owned carts of all of them except gba 2/usa, we rented it and I decided I liked NES version more even back then haha.

Music:
Seikima-II
St. GIGA soundchecks, trying to find identifiable tracks again.
tricot- T H E, really nice to finally listen to on decent speakers again. Has some songs that put a guitar all the way (or most of the way) to one channel so can be a little weird to listen to on headphone or in some cars.
Cibo Matto

Website:
Kimimi had a lot of articles I liked recently so check it out, but in particular I liked the one on Mitsumete Knight. Always seemed interesting and I liked the logo
Anime:
Momo2 EP 39, 40 SPOILERS
( Read more... )

Ended up doing more cleanup and computer maintenance this week than expected. And resting.

Video: (As in, the food videos I watch before sleeping.)

CBC has a good documentary about the Jamaican patty in Canada. Patty vs Patty

PBS Hawai’i has good videos about food, too

TV TOKYO has started putting up the Solitary Gourmet tv show with subs… juuuust make sure to set the language to Japanese…. Food looks delicious. I've been threatening to buy the zojirushi electric grill

Anime:

Momo2:
Spoilers: 36,37. Things happen!
( Spoilers )

fun fun pharmacy: Following the cat is cute. Still good faces.

Computer:
This update’s anime were watched on a macbook hooked up to the nice monitor. it worked mostly ok if I turned off the mac’s dynamic refresh. I dont think it plays well with video. Also I think it was doing SDR in HDR in a weird way. it works on the laptop screens but on this monitor it looked a little off. It’ll do for now while I once again don’t have the main desktop running.

Music:
Jazz radio.

A few Gorillaz songs off the first album. Maaybe I listen to the new one soon? I actually need to go back and listen to Plastic Beach again to get a feel for it.

Tatsuro Yamashita - Moonglow
Kaoru Akimoto - Cologne
Been a while since I listened to those two albums on real speakers, was nice.

Anime:
Fun Fun Pharmacy: Still good, way behind the watch-along thread tepidsnake has but still enjoying. I love the low low budget CGI the show uses. Something about the music makes me wish this got an adventure game. I think this show's target age group is lower than what shows I've seen, but It’s so far one of the best kids anime I’ve put on the watch list. It's... how do I put it. It's neat. It's neat in a nice object kind of way. Well made show with interesting details fit in. (Honestly with how on/off the last month has been I've been getting this show in because it's short.)

Cooking videos, trying to get an idea of chinese ingredients to stock up in the pantry since the local places don’t have most of the food I’m craving. Good dim sum is too far, still missing items I want to eat. No good mapo tofu. Somehow, no good pork buns here. I have to learn how to make bao. There will still be things I can’t make, due to impractical ingredient pricing or some flavors still requiring real wok heat.

Game:
Booted up NeoGeo Pocket Color to play some games in bed. Played some Neo Turf Masters Pocket and somehow I’m worse at it on handheld. I think the game is more different than the arcade version than I thought. KoF and other fighters are fun with the click stick. Cotton almost plays well, but because it has a mash to fire shot it can get wobbly in some sitting positions. Too tired for RPGs. Metal Slug 2nd mission I'm still figuring out (read: I'm dying a lot) but need a brighter lamp to play. Maybe need to get a daylight/5000k lamp. (I refuse to IPS swap this system and Nintendo portables.)

Dug out my Wonderswan Color to test out before I set up a computer that talks to my flashcart correctly aaaaand the flash cart corrupted itself oops. Also having that power button issue, which is weird. I can turn it on just fine but can’t turn it off and Start button sometimes works. Anyway, hopefully a reflash is all it needs. Definitely needs a more solid flashcart option. Sorta same with NGPC but it’s way more usable.
Hopefully I can get it working, I do need to load a newer Klonoa patch and the SaGa 1 translation onto it.

Misc:

clothes sizing is hell. Also had to do a ton of clothes shopping. Can't find the right shit.

Current Mood: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Wrist was bad on/off for part of the week. Thankfully got well enough to clean up a bit. Did less drawing than I wanted tho.

Video:

Fun Fun Pharmacy: Still slowly catching up. Still fun. It could just be the mood I’m in but this show is just doing so much little cool well made stuff in a half time slot show?

Music:

Before Masaya Matsuura did nanaonsha (parappa, um jammer vib-ribbon, etc), there was Psy・S with the singer Chaka. Before that there was Playtechs with both of them, which some list as 83, some as 84 or 85. IIRC mostly done with samples and synthesizers. IIRC there’s a ton of Fairlight CMI? There’s some sounds I associate with early/mid 80’s synth pop but also sounds that do not sound out of place alongside late 80’s and 90’s stuff. There’s a few YT uploads of individuals songs and that one album with some other songs on his soundcloud.
To contrast that, I also listened to the album Two Bridges. This was released in 1996 and isn’t just a best hits album, it includes new mixes with added sounds. A bunch of the Psy S albums I own are not the best sounding mixes, all for slightly different dull reasons. This one is a different mix, a different filter, and sounds better on speakers. A lot of changes really make it sound like 90’s music. Guitar track changes and other small synth changes iirc. (I know i’m missing some details, I don’t have a good music vocabulary)

Finally got a proper speaker amp with a good volume knob for my bookshelf speakers. So I also listened to Syrup16g - delayedead, some Polysics, some rock, and jazz fusion I have on hand. The signal was noticeably clearer somehow, I think the previous amp was letting more noise go through maybe? New amp fixed lower volume listening so it’s already a win. I actually pulled the previous amp from the rack with all my old games on it so now I can go put it back so I can play them lol.

Computer:
I have mostly given up on macOS compatibility layer stuff and am trying to find a way to get an AMD gpu. I’ve had too many headaches with nvidia on linux.

Misc:
I feel like I need to write down or record something about my history with scalers and upscan converters. I realized at some point I had been looking at RGB, scan converters, and displays that could receive those signals since 2003. Possibly 02. For basically most of the time I thought of video games as a hobby, and not as a fun thing to play occasionally, I had been looking for higher quality signals. The idea that because composite was common it should be considered most accurate has never sat well with me because I already knew people were talking about ways to get rgb converted to vga because they had an RGB display before 2nd hand PVMs were cheap or available (and then got expensive). It was a computer monitor. Some people even saw DOS or windows games and went "hey, why's it sharper?" Sega PC Sonic games bundle? Yeah, I was asking why it looked better than my cousin's Genesis. I remember asking my dad to find some chips to build a scan converter with me. (We never found those chips on that schematic.) I know of people who got S-Video sets because that was enough of an upgrade over composite.

Not much this time, was a weird week with ups and downs. More errands than usual, too. Had to make up for some supplies we didn't get last month.

Video:

Fun Fun Pharmacy: More episodes in, this looks really good. Like, yes. It does have a budget, simpler anime look to it but they're making everything just look great. The colorful design is perfect.

Momo2 35: Good to seem them using their characters, many return in shots at the start. It is a show about Momo and the people and their dreams in a city. And other places. I still like Mama's design, big round glasses lady. Also this episode seems to be following one of the 2nd Momo designs I like more. (Some episodes she looks a little different, just like the first one. And other cartoons.) This episode is about puppies. And a father son argument. Momo fixes? the problem in a perfectly normal way. By turning into an adult as usual. I think she helped? Aaaa those puppies are cute.

Computers:

Was using an old mac mini I have to try some old stuff on the CRT monitor. That one 2011 model that did come with a mobile radeon. I think something went super hot or super wrong with it cuz it just kept on full on crashing. no input response. macOS side was also running into issues. I basically used it for “will it run?” fun hobby stuff in the past and got used as a lower power draw box for old games. (Sometimes this office can trip the breaker if too many computers are on somehow? Wiring sucks.) It's a mid-era OSX compatibility box, bridges my older macs with new machines should I need to xfer larger files. Will still talk to some accessories made for PPC era OSX. See, after a certain point a bunch of laptop and mobile gpu drivers just pretend everything is an lcd monitor/projector and has custom display modes disabled. Or scales everything. I can't make newer-ish laptops n' such out put a 640x480 game at that resolution. Also, this monitor will get more refresh options on old computers but at some point Windows or the driver just goes “oh, it only works at 75hz or 85hz”. It forgot the era of ranges. The time of drop down menus and sliders.

The reason I plugged it back in was because I couldn’t get WINE and compatibility layer shit on (arm) macOS to run. Get (windows) steam working again, refuses to run the few games I feel like playing on this laptop. Definitely painted myself into a corner with this one. You would think F/SN would just run? nop. probably used to. Or will work if I slap down cash for CrossOver. Also new remaster fate on steam seems to actually use steam drm so I can't just pull it out of the steam folder like some indie shmups and other smaller games I own. But I basically only use this because I can play a few light things on the machine I normally type and watch online video on. Next laptop definitely will be linux.
Also, I had a few older games that are on GoG/Steam that still work in 4:3 and they look nice on CRTs. Also maybe I bought something on another storefront that still came with its original old windows version with dithered 640x480 artwork. That early Windows stuff right after PC98 era ended…. Anyway, Zwei I works at a weird fixed resolution because they didn't make 4:3 aspect a toggle so it only runs in widescreen even though everything was designed for 4:3. sucks for trying to put the nice art on a crt to dodge all that but oh well.

Trying dreamwidth more this year so changing up what blog gets what! Someday I'll sit down and streamline my personal site to go back to updating that regularly, but right now my ancient Dreamweaver install is on a machine that takes too long to get to.

Neck been hurting so also not a lot this week. hard to stay focused when your neck is like "lol have a little soreness" randomly.

Misc:

It took two nights to stop me from deep diving on projectors. It appears 3DLP, 3LCOS are so high end there's barely any lag data. 3LCD is in the consumer zone, but projectors are a wacky world where 50ms is low latency apparently. or 70ms... 1DLP rainbow bothers me, so no good. Don't even get me started on resolution, I'd be fine with lower res but it feels like everyone just expects to scale whatever you input and don't want to treat it like a monitor.

Video:

A bunch of train videos on youtube. Really blah during the day this last week and had some stuff to take care of. Keio has a new train and I kinda like it. The Keio offwhite/cream looks good on it. Some other Japanese routes and obscure stations. A blur of rail transit videos around NA.

Anime:

Started Fun Fun Pharmacy cuz Tepidsnake is watching. I looked it up a year ago and I can't remember why. It could've been because it's a short (half time slot) anime. I think anyone into animation or anime should watch a few of these short ones, even a 3DCG one. A few of those really short 3 or 5 minute ones too. It could've been because of the character designs/designer. So far, still seems fun! I love the color palette here. Also, I too wish I had magic.

Super Cub late thought: There's a bgm that sounds like a song from Chrono Trigger for a little bit. It took me an extra week to figure out what.

Game:

Played a little bit of Tetris Effect to test a display and some audio. Still good, but honestly... it emphasizes what I don't like about the DS5. Accidental directions, a controller that almost feels OK but just feels off in practice. It's Fine when playing Gran Turismo, but like... I'm only using the analogs for that lol. I didn't have a fightstick on hand, but I'm going to be pissed if I now need a PS5 cert stick cuz I paid for the upgrade lmao.

Draw:

uhhh I still feel too shy to upload something. I've literally been too brain fogged to draw faces right. Like, I wasn't GOOD, but they didn't look this awkward before. It feels like I traded less awkward freehand hips for getting worse at faces for a while lol. Ah well, I try to do one small doodle a day at minimum so maybe I'll work thru it.

Anyway, I had a dream. Occasionally during some dreams I see a lady in a window or mirror and it's been vague details. Recently her outfit and hair looked clearer so I tried to draw it. Though, its been fuzzy if it was someone else or a reflection. ah well. After drawing I realized this looked closer to a sona/avatar I've been redesigning but more casual. like a more realistic outfit.

Hey guess waht. I can't focus on games either.

Vampire Survivors:
Been a long time since I booted it up. Played random DLC with the new Castlevania stuff. Those Contra weapons sure are useful but SUUUPER annoying to evolve in other stages or with other characters. I think the unlock stuff is a little tiring. Still lost 6 hours into the night twice playing this. Will play more soon. Julius Belmont is funny here.

Witching Stone:
Puzzle game where you make paths to do damage? SOLD! So I had several really bad runs early on and was about to instant drop it but Noelle's OST kept me going. Like... awkward spell gets and gem boards for three or four runs where I couldn't even beat the first boss somehow. Then I got like 5 good runs then I've been getting some real "lul get fucked" final bosses alongside some meh runs and now I'm taking a break. I think the time investment per run is a little high for me personally. Especially with how game overs can just happen. Had a few where it was clear "I played bad." but some are like "oh, btw. thanks to chance here's the exact counter to anything you could've built. bye" Honestly really fun most of the time but some losses are just me saying "fuck off" quietly at my monitor. Oh and use nice headphones or a speaker setup with something resembling bass.

DEVIL BLADE REBOOT:
Hell yeah finally de-rusted enough to not completely flop before the 1st boss finally. This mayyyy be in part to whatever update, game or driver who knows, just playing nicer with vsync.

ASTLIBRA:
I need to play this more. played the tutorial but then the computer was doing funny things so I'll return to this later.

MOCO MOCO FRIENDS:
Watching people stream Pokemon but booting up a Pokemon game makes me feel a little burnt out still, so I decide to play the 3DS game I regret not turning into a speculative investment. (Don't look up the price. it hurts a lil.) This is not like Pokemon but it is a monster team RPG. All the monsters are little plushies. Super cute. Aesthetically and battle wise feels very simplified for a potential elementary girl audience. This was near peak Yokai Watch era in Japan, after all. However, there's so much kinda bland item grinding stuff that I think some kids would've been fine with but it's just a ton of boring menus. Weird item management. And waiting for animations to finish so you can get to the next dialogue box. There's a tiny hub world and some generated dungeons that remind me more of Shiren but without Shiren/mystery dungeon movement. (No traps either. I should play a shiren.) No interesting places to visit here. This game is fairly slim on stuff to do and lacks variety. Every character is silly cute in a way I like, but honestly the game makes them a little annoying. The localization is "American Otaku" flavored enough I don't know who is this for. The few generic voice clips are Japanese which feels odd for a kids game sometimes. I'm fine with it but there are lines that make me go "heh... wait. Who the heck is this for? These are lines for people who watched subbed anime." Do the kids know "tsundere"? Would they understand these character tropes? Would they understand the things other JP media has filled the gaps in the localization for me? I might fall off this game eventually but I do want to see what it looks like in the end. Poor college student who likes cute stuff would need to REALLY like cute stuff for even its original price to feel okay. It feels like someone went to shave corners for design reasons and then was told to shave more for budget reasons. Unlike 3DS Pokemon, the 3D slider is actually normal performance and is available quite a lot of the time.

Blue Revolver Double Action beta:
Heck yeah. This game is cool. I just need to de-rust on shmups in general. Lots o gameovers. I am just getting hit too much, need to get my eye for bullets back. All the ships feel good. Going to be putting this in a shmup rotation with Batrider and Devil Blade Reboot. And a touhou. gotta have a touhou.

Street Uni X:
Backyard Tony Hawk but for Unicycles. Need more time but it's great. Classic graphics but I think I need to turn off a few of them to reduce motion sickness for me. (Some PS1 games will give me motion sickness, some won't. Spyro 1 will more often than Spyro 2 and 3 somehow.)

White Knight Chronicles I&II:
I have not finished II. The first game is included in the sequel and upgraded! It's a very Level 5 game. The carnival guy is evil. There's always an evil carnival guy. Time travel. Magic with consequences. Also extremely MMO for console. No idea how the online multiplayer was but I'm going to bet it barely touched PSO tier and they were chasing monster hunter quest style. After finishing part I to have a character for part II and to refresh my memory I wanted to take a break after seeing the first bit of II. At this point it feels like the people who should hunt it down are those who want to see one of the largest gaps between the early preview (pre-rendered) trailer and release game, a weird ps3 rpg, or are desperate Dark Cloud 2/Dark Chronicle fans.

Gran Turismo 5 and 6:
Didn't play these when they were new. Got 5 prologue and decided I needed a wheel. Never bought the wheel. Mostly got to fool around and try out cars I'll never buy/import. Been on a car research bit. Wanted a good list of cars to get (used) so that I won't complain as much. Cars kinda suck in the US so I'm throwing a 1st gen prius with better tires around tracks. Just doing all the weird things with cars they don't make anymore. Sport wagons, hatchbacks, sub-compacts. Got a sub 10min nurburgring with multiple minimally tuned early hybrids. Setting lap times with a tuned Odyssey. Driving an old Lexus we probably won't get for insurance reasons. Still don't own the wheel and now just occasionally boot up to set a time at Motegi since it's the one track I've been to. (Also technically part of that Tokyo track, any part based on a Tokyo highway,) Still don't own that wheel. People who say get 6 are right, I got 5 for messing with.

Soulcalibur IIHD, IV, V, VI:
I had that Create-a-Soul urge so I booted up VI. Still hate the rock paper scissors stuff. Meter stuff coulda been better. Finally unlocked Inferno and the bunny suit. Put (I think?) every character in a bunnygirl suit and made genderbent versions for some. Then booted up V. Then played II HD because I couldn't remember how that game felt anymore and it got me into this series. II feels different but honestly I think this series is the reason why I didn't play 3D fighters nor even Capcom 2D games for a while. Or just thought I couldn't learn them for like a decade. The single player stuff and the way characters just handle in general make it hard to figure out where you're going wrong or if it is the game so often. I know people bring up the older games for their "good fighting game single player" but honestly. Some of this stuff is just annoying or gambling. I bought IV cuz I needed the weirdest game in the series. Vader? Yoda? Guest character designers? Honestly if I had to go back for fun It'd be IV. IV doubles down on some stuff I don't like in the series single player stuff, but honestly I think there is something here to be polished into something better.

Megaman X Dive:
Wrote more elsewhere, but just needed to zone out so gacha free version of a mobile gacha worked. Also couldn't get legacy collection 2 to vsync. No, I have not played the X series yet. Nor beaten a Megaman classic. Sometimes I like a robot girl and thats enough to play game.They knew what they were doing designing Rico. Oh yeah, Magical Girl Roll is powerful and that's good.

UFO50:
Not beaten these games, I'm bad at them. These are soooo gooood tho. It really felt like getting 50 new games from 1985-1991. Going to be working through Mini & Max first. I keep on playing when I'm tired so I just mess up a buncha stuff. I think I can relax and play Mini and Max tho.

Parking Garage Rally Circuit:
Need more time but racing around a parking lot is greaaat. Always wanted a game like that.

Victory Heat Rally:
Super fast superscaler style racing game. Really cool. I wish this got more polish. I thought the game was being forgiving because power drift type games can be hard to control but to unlock the last character it actually expects me to Gold medal everything in the game and I can't do it. The difficulty just spiked part way through. Though Grand Prix is easy right up until the end. Some Golds just feel like it's tuned for speedrunners. Expectation of perfect fine control in one of these is just weird. I think I'll fall off this right before the last event because the last character to unlock is gothy and I want to beat the game with gothy and if I can't I just won't. There's already some weird stuff the minute the game adds jumps. There some tracks where most of the CPUs are just exploding. Can't figure out consistently which character is good at what.

YEAH! YOU WANT "THOSE GAMES," RIGHT? 2:
Much better than 1. Still some tough oddballs but was getting through more games in this one.

Next: Back to Void Stranger, maybe pickup a PS2 rpg, X8, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, and/or Kitsune Tails. Also some fighters, Castlevanias. Mahvel. I play games at a weird pace so could also be nothing before the end of the year.