Whoops

Okay, let’s post something.

The Longest Journey. The first game I stopped playing because I couldn’t stand the main character.

Obtuse puzzles, slow movement speed, pointless areas that only serve to extend the playtime. Please, I’ve played King’s Quest III before Australia had the internet and the benefit of internet walkthroughs. I can handle clunky. What I can’t handle is playing a character with nothing resembling coherent thought.

So the game opens in a strange fantasy setting, cliffs, a talking tree, then a dragon. Then the main character wakes up. She’s an art student, but she has no inspiration. .... Bitch, you just had an apparently recurring dream  set in a fantasy land with a sweeping vista- PAINT THAT, a big head acting as the spirit of a tree PAINT THAT, and a freaking *dragon* PAINT THAT.

Okay, we’re in her bedroom in a boarding house. Small, cramped, but there is a view of a canal out the window PAINT THAT. We get dressed and head out- a somewhat run-down area that used to be a manufacturing area, all canals and strange collections of pipes PAINT THAT, the small cafe where she works PAINT THAT, with a mysterious door nearby that she wonders what’s behind it, SPECULATE SOMETHING AND PAINT THAT, and another odd collection of pipes with an unknown purpose behind them PAINT THAT.

Oh, gotta get that ring she lost back so she can use it to fix some mysterious machine outside the building. PAINT THAT. Eh, fuck it, can’t figure it out right now.

But really, we need to head to the art school and work on her painting, there’s an exhibition coming up that she has to submit a painting to, and she’s barely painted anything. Let’s go past the subway entrance with a guy sleeping on a bench PAINT THAT, through the park PAINT THAT with a large bridge arching overhead PAINT THAT, to the art academy.

There’s a guy inside, painting. She envies him because he seems to knock out a painting every day. (You know why? BECAUSE HE PAINTS!) And work on our painting for the exhibition (not that the player sees it) for ..... well there’s no indication how long, an hour or two at most, before she gives up and any further attempt to have her keep painting has her refusing to work on it because she’s not feeling it or something.

Anyway, let’s talk to the possibly homeless guy that just sits around on the bench outside her boarding house. He seems to know something about her dreams. The dreams of a fantasy otherland that she could paint, but doesn’t because.... apparently unless a fucking angel descends in a light show, says it’s her muse and decrees “here is what you shall paint” it doesn’t count as inspiration.

Anyway, enough of that, it’s a choice of an evening in watching tv, or heading out to the cafe with a friend. Either way, part of the fantasy world will cross over into the real world, that everyone can see, but that doesn’t count as inspiration either.

Anyway, the next day homeless guy is gone, but he’s left a message that she should meet him. Where? Well he only left a cryptic clue, not a location, so you know what, fuck him. That exhibition is coming up soon, and she needs to finish her painting. Oh wait no, I’ve gotten her to the canvas but she refuses to touch it, she’s just not feeling it.

Hey, you know that guy you envy, that produces a painting every day? You know how he manages it? BECAUSE HE FUCKING PAINTS. He doesn’t wait for a mystical muse, he picks something to paint and paints. But instead, let’s run all around town trying to figure out where homeless guy is. After all, he vaguely hinted he knows something about her dream, and really needs to talk to her, but can’t do it on the bench right outside her boarding house where he spends most of his time, it has to be at ..... well she doesn’t know where, but the message she got was that he wanted to talk to her and a cryptic clue to his location. Just tell her to meet him somewhere, or tell the person he’s left the message with where you should go. Oh, message guy? Don’t bother tracking down the person and giving them the message. Don’t even mention me when you see her. Wait until she brings me up in conversation, *then* pass along my vague “I need to talk to you.”

So, as you can see- it’s worth running around questioning everyone she knows to try and figure out where he is. After all it’s not like she has anything better to do. Like, say, finish a painting for an exhibition she’s signed up for. After all, it’s not like she’s an art student that left her small hometown to move to the city just to attend this art school. ...oh wait.

But anyway, let’s run around searching for clues. Ah, got one. He *might* be at an art exhibition of children’s paintings. Oh, we need to take the subway to get there and she has no money. Sure you don’t want to work on your painting? You did move out here to pursue your dreams of becoming an artist, and you need to work on your skills, finish a painting for that exhibition, it is your future we’re talking about here.

No? “Not feeling it” still, okay, let’s talk chase up the owner of the cafe you work at for your wages so you can buy a subway pass and go gallivanting across the city to find some homeless guy that “needs to talk to you” and you have to meet somewhere, but he can’t be bothered to tell you just where.

Okay, got some money. Oh wait, there’s a big key lying on the electrified rails. Fucking *want*! Gotta run around and find stuff to allow us to grab it, which for some reason involves fixing the whatever the hell it is outside the boarding house. Something to do with hot water? You don’t know. Sure you don’t want to work on your painting? Of course you don’t

Okay, key gotten, time for a ride on the subway. We finally find homeless jackoff at an art exhibition, lucky we scored a free ticket, or we would have had to spend even more cash just to talk to this guy.

“I need to to talk to you starving art student. It’s *super* important, here’s a vague clue to where I’ll be, no I won’t just tell you where- this is *important* ...and bring cash, because it’s 20 bucks to talk to me.” Asshole.

Anyway, we’ve found jackoff, and he rambles some vague metaphorical bullshit at us. He’ll tell us more, but tomorrow.

The next day. Ok, instead of the life of an art student, it’s time to hunt down a cryptic homeless guy. The fate of the world just may depend upon it ...possibly, *somehow*, but the fate of the world isn’t important enough that he’ll tell you where to meet him.

Oh no, the only one that might know where homeless jackoff might be, is the slimy guy you hate that also lives in the boarding house. And he’s not going to tell you shit unless you agree to go on a date with him.

So, agree to go on a date with this slime that wants to get into your pants, so you can learn the location of a homeless guy that really wants to talk to you, but can’t be bothered to let you know where he is. Sure, you’re an art student with a painting to finish, but this guy who keeps spouting bullshit at you just *might* know something about a recoccurring dream you’ve been having. That’s worth selling your body for instead of working towards the career you’ve been working towards, right?

Okay, across the city to talk to the cryptic jackoff. He’s in a cinema in the city. The cinema.... is closed. And there’s an employee out front telling you it’s closed, and a cop standing around watching the area.

Can I go back to the start here? Let’s see, I’m controlling the main character. She’s an art student, that complains she has no inspiration despite the fantastical dreams she keeps having every night, and the city around her, filled with mysterious relics of the area’s manufacturing past.

She left her small hometown to come to the city just to attend this art school, because she wants to be an artist. But she’ll do anything to avoid painting. She envies the student that can produce a new painting every single day, but she’s not going to say, talk to him to get advice, or follow his example and keep working on her painting. Yeah, she *needs* to finish just this one, for an upcoming exhibition. But she’s just not “feeling it”.

Instead, oh this possibly homeless stranger she strikes up a conversation with somehow knows about her dreams. Sure it’s creepy that he knows about them, won’t say how he knows and keeps spouting mysterious bullshit, and keeps leaving messages with your friends that he really needs to talk to you, then disappears off who knows where, despite previously doing nothing but sit around on the one bench *right outside the place you live*, but you’ve got nothing better to do instead of chasing him down.

Now, what would *you* do in this situation? Work towards the career you’ve always wanted, or run around a city, talking to everyone you know to find the location of some creep that knows about your *dreams*, picking up a ton of random crap along the way, to fix things you’re not qualified to fix just so you can get to the *possible* location of the aforementioned creep, who leaves messages with your friends about he needs you to meet him in a place, but he’s not going to tell you where, so he can babble mysterious bullshit at you.

Now a real life person that wants to become an artist so much that they left home to attend an art academy, would push through a creative block. Because the only way to improve your skills is to practice those skills, and if they had a lack of ideas would talk to friends or a teacher for help. And if they had a single creative bone in their body, could easily see that dreams are inspiration, and that mysterious objects can serve as a jumping off point for creativity.

Also if someone knows just what you’ve been dreaming about without any reasonable way of knowing so, you’d find that creepy. And if they then kept disappearing when before they were known for consistently hanging around the same place, whilst telling your friends that they really need to talk to you- but never say *where* beyond a cryptic hint, would you run around trying to figure out where the homeless guy wandered off to, instead of working on that painting for the important exhibition with the rapidly approaching due date?

NO. You’d work on your artwork and avoid the unwashed creep that knows far too much about what goes on in your head at night.

But game protagonist, April Ryan. She’ll run around looking for clues to talk to creepy strangers, she’ll collect random crap and fool around with mysterious devices and electrified subway rails. She’ll work through long conversation trees with anyone who’s willing to talk to her. She’ll waste her money on a subway pass so she trek across the city to find a guy who won’t tell her where he is. She’ll poison a cop, and vandalize city property, all to distract a guy that’s stopping her from entering a CLOSED CINEMA that she *thinks* homeless guy is in.

She doesn’t know for sure, but a guy she knows said the asshole she hates might know, and the asshole said he’ll tell her, but only if she goes out on a date with him. Not that there’s any reason to trust this jerk that obviously only wants in her pants, or the homeless creep that she’s trying to find. But what else is an aspiring painter going to do? Paint? Nah.

So talking to the cinema employee, maybe we can ask him if homeless jackoff is inside? Oh, no she’s not going to do that. The slimy asshole that wants in her pants said jackoff is inside and that’s good enough for her! This employee guy is pretty dumb, so if we tell him we’re here to meet jackoff who’s waiting for us inside, he’d probably let us in, or at least confirm if jackoff is here or not.

No? Not going to do that either? Well how do we get in this place? Wait for tonight when it opens? Oh no, this is far too important to wait. Hmm, dumbass keeps fiddling with the sign, looks like some dodgy wiring. Oh hey, there’s an electrical box that’s obviously city property, if we break that, that might just distract dumbass over here. Or it might be for the streetlight or some traffic lights close by, but who’s got time to think about that?

No our main problem now is, there’s a cop hanging around, watching everything. We start breaking the law in front of him, we’re getting hauled off. What to do? Hmm, there’s a disgusting leaking trashcan here and oh! We have a piece of candy in our pocket. Let’s move the trashcan, dip the candy in the filth and then give the candy to the cop!

And tada! We have successfully poisoned the cop! Oh spitting out that crap you gave him made dumbass loose his shit at the cop. The cop’s left to go be sick, maybe go to the hospital. Sure that’s a criminal act, but hey, there’s a *chance* that this homeless jackoff we want to talk to may be inside, and you can’t vandalize city property in order to distract someone long enough to sneak into a closed cinema if the fuzz is watching. This is all common sense.

Okay, the cop’s gone with dumbass hot on his heels, left his hat too. Score! Okay, enter the cinema? Nope, we need to enter from the alleyway, and the gate into the alley is locked.

Well we did poison the cop so we could break public property, better get on with that. So, subway key opens up the electrical box, and cobbling together some of the random junk we’ve picked up will allow us to fuck with the workings.

And the marquee on the cinema is broken! And hey, here’s dumbass back, looks like you’ve got some work to do buddy! Not that it will fix the problem, but hey, he unlocked the gate when he went to grab is tools. Now we can sneak into the alley while he works on the sign.

Ah! Guy with gun, nope just some trash casting a shadow. How odd. Now into the cinema through the fire door. Shit, it’s locked, and setting of the fire alarm will bring dumbass running.

Hm, time to look at the crap we’re hauling around. Put the cop’s hat on the garbage, and presto, the shadow of a cop brandishing a gun. But we don’t want dumbass to look for more than a second.... Oh we have a toy monkey that shouts threats and demands you dance. Perfect! Now it’s arson time.

We open up a trashcan and start a garbage fire. Homeless jackoff would be proud. The alarm goes off and unlocks the door. Dumbass comes running, but monkey toy is screaming out that you must dance or he’ll cap you, and that stops him from looking at” the man with a gun” to realize it’s just the shadow of piled garbage.

Our criminal career off to a brilliant start, we slip into the cinema, hoping that slimy was telling the truth and jackoff really is in there. Oh hey, he is! Now he can ramble at us about old movies. Important.

Oh we’re going back out into the alley? Lucky break, the fire’s out and dumbass is gone. So what next? ....Homeless jackoff is apparently a magic homeless jackoff, we have a swirly portal here. Jackoff says get going, oh and when you land, hit up his buddy.

Woo! Portal time! Where does it go? What will happen to you April? You’re just a humble art student. Oh wait, you’d rather do anything than paint, uncertain death away!

Ulp, portal travel. Blergh. So, where are you now? A catacomb? Oh wait, a temple, let’s see if the priest there will finally tell us what’s going on. And.... he does not speak english, but we can’t do anything else, so let’s just stand here and listen to what we can’t understand.

Slowly the words become english, oh wait, no we’ve gained the mystical ability to speak the language here because we took the time to listen, also it’s because April is “special”. Well depending on your definition, that’s true, but the game’s not working off the same one I’m using.

So, where the fuck are we? Priest guy is the something of whatever, and tells us we are in another world, one that doesn’t work off science and logic, but magic! Well April doesn’t work off logic either, so being trapped in a different world with no money, food, place to stay, livelihood or knowledge of how *anything* here works? Not a problem.

Still, this place is completely unfamiliar, so an explanation from someone who understands just how out of her depth would be good. Can the priest direct us to jackoff’s buddy? Nope, no idea where the dude lives, and he’s not known by name around here, just as the Rolling Man.

Okay, off into the city! Let’s wander around the market. Oh, a map maker- does he know where the Rolling Man is? Yes, but he’s not going to tell you. Fuck. His delivery boy just quit though, so maybe if you work for him you can break into his files later on. It’s low pay.... but you have zero money in this world, so the only way is up.

Okay, deliver a map to a sailor, and get his signature to confirm delivery. Simple enough, let’s find the docks. Huh, word is ship travel’s stalled in this port town because a wizard’s been fucking with the wind. How whimsical. Anyway, we got a boat to find.

Okay sailor man, here’s your map. That’ll be one coin for the delivery and sign here, or my boss will fire me. What do you mean you won’t sign?! Conversation time, oh, he can’t write. Just put anything, an ‘x’ will do. Nope, apparently writing is bad juju. But without a signature you’re out a job and the the only chance to find rolling buddy.

You want music, then you’ll sign? Great, oh and April can’t just sing, gotta get an instrument. Well time to see what’s available for the one coin she’s got. Anything? A cheap flute, whatever. So, broke once more, it’s time to play a song for the sailor. Can April even play music? She’s a painter. Whatever.

Music played, money gone, form signed, back to map maker to get the next job. Well, what do you know? It’s a map for rolling buddy, and now as the delivery drone, we’re allowed to know the directions to his place. ..... say what? Can you write that down... oh it appears on the map screen. Good, ‘cause those directions were long and not that clear.

Okay, rolling buddy, here’s your map, and btw, homeless jackoff said you’ll know how to get April back to her world. Time for a chat and a drink.... what do you mean you don’t fucking know?! Oh but here’s a watch. Yay. It’s broken. Of course.

Random junk time, and the watch is fixed. Oh, magic watch, but not really. An aid to access the world transitioning power within. Anyway a way to get home, let’s go. Wibbly wobbly away!

And back with jackoff. So just what was that all about you homeless fuck? A conspiracy, world in danger, blah blah blah. Now April has a choice, hang with her best friend for the evening or go on that date with slimy. According to the walkthrough, he’s going to be an asshole either way.

Anyway next day. Now I could keep playing, a world of science, one of magic, some big conspiracy, the fate of both worlds in danger. But the thing is, I’d have to keep controlling April. And while I’ve gone through what’s happened while I was playing, I haven’t even begun to touch on how annoying this bint is.

I mentioned King’s Quest III. Okay, that was annoying and clunky too, plus tons of death screens thrown in to boot. But the main character was so much better. Yes, he knew nothing about the world he was in, but he was kidnapped as a child and had spent all of the life he could remember as a servant for an evil wizard.

What did want? To escape and find a life for himself. As he works towards his freedom, he finds out more about his past, a place to go to, a princess in danger, wrongs to right.

April on the other hand. Her backstory has her set up as an art student, but she never works towards that. She left her small hometown to attend this art school and become an artist? She touches a canvas ONCE. She complains about repeating dreams of a fantasy otherland, then complains about how she has no inspiration.

Everything around her is inspiration. The dreams, the views of the area she lives in, the left over pieces the area’s past. The boy who produces a painting every day, oh how she envies him, but’s not going to talk to him. She’s not going to talk to her friend and fellow art student. She’s not even going to work on her fucking painting in progress. No April’s going to drift around, complaining to herself that she has no muse.

She’s a penniless art student, who is under an obligation to produce a single piece of work for an upcoming exhibition that the school is putting on. This is important to her, or at least it’s supposed to be, because she sure as hell doesn’t act like it is. She’ll drift around, talking to her friends about anything other than her troubles. Hell, she’ll talk to the homeless bum who sits around on his ass all day.

A homeless bum who somehow knows about her dreams and spouts nothing but vague bullshit at her, and that’s enough for her to throw everything out the window to chase after him so he can spout more vague nonsense at her.

He has to talk to her, but makes it near impossible for her to find him to have this talk. And why is she doing all this? Well he said he knew she was having dreams, and apparently that’s the most pressing thing in her life. She isn’t even convinced these dreams are important. She complains about having them instead of getting inspired.

This is not the story of someone who as they chase their dream, learn more about the world and their destiny. This is someone who farts around as she deliberately avoids working towards her dream. Does she have a destiny? It looks like it, but it’s not something she’s been searching for, and neither is it something being thrust upon her. She’s certain of nothing, everything in her life is vague and unfocused. No fighting for something, nor fighting to escape something. Someone she barely knows mentions dreams, and she’s going to comb the city, picking up junk and breaking the law because... she doesn’t feel like doing any painting today.

Adventure games, you have to jump through a lot of hoops, but most games- there’s a reason for it. It furthers the main charcter’s goals, or they’re trying to fight the system as it cracks the whip and forces them to jump. April doesn’t have either. A stranger walks over, holds up a hoop and says “jump through this”.

No reason, no pressure, no consequence. The hoop doesn’t lead to something she desires, and there nothing to stop her from refusing to jump through it. She’s not getting fulfillment out the jumping. Random people walk up to her and tell her to jump through a hoop.

How can I write so much and yet be unable to properly articulate just what it is about this stupid fool I can’t stand? It’s a directionless dumbass complaining about her lack of something she actually has in spades, as she does everything to avoid the reason she’s there in the first place.

Or take the time to log out and leave kudos again.....

Current annoyance: I keep clicking kudos button on AO3 and then that fucker announces:

I don’t care. Some things just deserve more kudos. 

I’m kidding myself that anyone looks at my tumblr, but hey, reblogging anyway because this is a gorgeous young pup who deserves someone who loves her.

About a week ago, I was driving down my street and as I approached my house this dog was walking across my drive way. Then into the neighbors.. And into the street.

I parked, almost lost a shoe, and ran into the street after her.

I had to chase her a couple houses down, and then I just sat down. I bowed my head and licked my lips. She slowly walked over and let me pet her. Then, she let out the saddest howl I’ve ever heard in my life.

My dog.. My dog is spoiled. She wants for nothing. She barks AT MY FACE because we are not moving out the door fast enough. Emma has never made a pain sound in the four years I’ve had her, and I work TIRELESSLY to make sure she stays that way. But, this dog.. This dog had been on the streets for a couple days as noted my not so concerned neighbors. Who were nice enough to lend me some rope, so I could walk her back home.

We got into the house. I gave her water, a treat and she declined. But she did want pets. And slowly she started to fall asleep on my hand. Maybe she just needed rest and comfort…

What happened next was that I had to call a shelter to come get her. If you know Emma, then you know she’s very bossy and very territorial about her things. (Pudge knows. She tried to take off his face once. Okay, several times.) and so I helped coax her out of my house and into an animal control van….

It breaks my heart, guys. 7 days and no one has claimed her. I have messaged rescues and only one has responded to me. They said they only take dogs who have a dedicated foster already. In the corgi community, we all jump at rescues and dogs in need - because we all have a passion for our breed. But, what I’m finding with pitty/staffy mixes is they are just “another dog”…

So, what I’m asking (and thank you if you got this far) - this dog is in Carrollton, Texas. She deserves a home. She deserves people. Please share, please help me find her a place where she belongs.

- Nicole

The expressions in #3 are pure perfection, Harry’s especially, this *is* Colin Firth as a dog.

#4 is a scene that would have happened in the movie if they were dogs.

Kingsdog : The Fluffy Service >(x)

Well it can’t be called an FAQ...

More a combination of OAQ, possibly RAQ and ANAQ...

Occasionally Asked Question, Rarely Asked Question and Almost Never Asked Question.

Rare/Occasional: Gnarynhar?

Well, my preferred handle of Thordis is usually taken. Most people then go for adding a number, but, I just don’t like that, I need something I can resonate to, and a number just doesn’t work for me. I have sometimes used AusThordis, but that feels like too much work.

And Gnarynhar is easier?!

Well, no. (It is one letter shorter though!) And it’s a couple of noises of frustration put together, slightly altered and put into letters, but it’s something I made myself, so the resonance I want is there. Usually shortened to Gnar or Gnary by others,,,, it is a bit of a mess to type, I know. The ‘G’ is, well sort of silent, it’s there to twist your mouth as you pronounce the ‘n’ to get the right sound. Nyarr-nn-haarr.

Not easy to spell, not easy to remember, not even my first choice. But it’s mine, and... at least it’s never taken.

Almost Never: Professional Crazy?

I am on a disability support pension, heck I qualified for it back when I was, frankly, better than I am right now. I reason it out thusly: I am crazy. I get money for being crazy. Therefore I am a professional crazy.

My psychiatrist has said I’m not crazy, and I’m not saying having OCD = being crazy. In the end, it’s how I choose to self identify. Read Mara Wilson's article on OCD on Cracked.com Point 2 is where this comes into play.

Looking back into my childhood before the OCD developed, I can see at least one thing I did and say “Yeah, that was OCD right there.” But beyond that, I was always that extra bit different from other kids my age. Hitting (and mostly finishing puberty in primary school rather than in high school like everyone else also contributed to some of my quirks.)

Also, I seem to approach some things differently than most people. I took psychology as an elective in high school, and when I left high school, in the adult ed classes I took as an alternative. I’d be saying something in class, and the teacher was always cutting me off, saying I was off topic.

As far as I was concerned I was on topic, she just never let me finish, so I could show what I was saying did tie into the discussion. I was just approaching things from such an oblique angle, no-one saw the connection I was trying to make.

Plus my social skills were never the best, and towards the end of primary school I was starting to isolate myself. Then in high school, well my friends all went to a different school, and I was left with a combination of people I knew from primary school and didn’t get along with, mixed with strangers that mostly wanted to pick on me. I didn’t have friends in high school, I had acquaintances that occasionally weren’t interested in making my life hell.

So what little social skills I had atrophied, and as I moved closer and closer to my current housebound state, they withered even further. I see myself not only as an introvert, but shy. And for many years I really was. My classmates in TAFE did not see things the same way. But that’s because if I do feel comfortable enough to start a conversation, I tend to verbally hold people down and talk at them until they run away or beg for mercy.

Social interaction is important, Terry Pratchett put it something like “people need to be bounced around by the Brownian motion of society”. I, barely even watch tv anymore.

Roping that tangent back to it’s origin of crazy. It’s also a shorthand I use with my family. Anything related back to my OCD, requests, restrictions, explanations, instead of a long, frustrating explanation they know they’ll never fully ‘get’, it’s easier to just say “It’s a crazy thing.” and move on.

Sometimes it’s more of a discussion, with them offering suggestions, most of the time, I’ve already considered what’s been brought up. Other times, they can add that little piece I’m missing.... for a problem that by all rights shouldn’t exist. -I feel ‘crazy’ is an apt term.

I start with a simple question, and I produce another stream-of-consciousness wall-of-text attack. At least I paragraph it? ....time to look up how to put this under a cut.

Wait, there are people that don’t like his outfit? What’s wrong with them, it’s a good look on him.

All dogs shed all the time. I grew up with it, so I didn't even notice the fur half the time. Hair is dropped all year round (just like humans) then depending on breed you get shedding season or blowing coat.

Spitz types tend to blow coat. And you get little pluckable tufts of loose fur on their body. Which you can then pluck. I like plucking, it's very rewarding, you end up with handfuls of soft, wooly underfur.

I'm gonna have to find a spinner. Dog fur is said to be 80% warmer than wool. Actually I met a spinner once who had some Samoyed in her jumper, it was only for the coldest of days, it was too warm otherwise.

I like to imagine a dog fur blanket. ♫Wrap me up in your love, your love takes me higher~♫

Do corgis shed much? I really want one, but I had a dog that would shed so much and it's a hassle to clean up and i don't really want to deal with that again :/

Yes they shed ALL THE TIME. No such thing as blowing their coats twice a year–it’s an all year round thing. My car is forever destroyed. If you do decide to get a corgi though, habitualization is on your side. You’ll stop noticing it after a while (unless you’re super obsessive about the fur) because it just becomes a part of the landscape. Fur in your food, fur in your bag, fur on your sweaters, fur that follows you into hotel rooms in countries thousands of miles away (and then makes you all shad bc you miss the doge)… you get the picture.

Some background.

Okay, I can’t edit this how I want (leaving only the middle under a cut), so I’ll post my concluding paragraph before the cut.

Being as socially isolated as I am, I can't say for sure, but I'm guessing I have fairly odd behaviours when it comes to fandoms. I tend to jump from one to another as the mood strikes me, but eventually come back to most of them for a while, trawl my way through fanfic and art, and then completely ignore it as I move back to another old fandom.

Okay, that's probably not that odd, but when I cycle off a fandom I tend to ignore it completely and not even mentally count it as something I'm a fan of. Sometimes to the point of almost actively avoiding it, say, avoiding reading a crossover fic for something I'm currently into that's been crossed with one of my previous fandoms that I'm currently ignoring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The upshot of all this being- sometimes I’ll effectively ‘drop’ a fandom entirely, only to wander back months or years later and pick back up where I left off. (And in the intervening period, never actively acknowledge it’s something I’ve like.)

The thing is, I don't really even know why I do that. As a kid, most of the time I was always in the process of reading anything from two to four novels at the same time.

Say, I'd have an Asimov short stories compilation lying around, be halfway through one Anne McCaffery, starting off another Anne McCaffery from a different series and had just finished re-reading Voyage of the Dawn Treader because it was a rainy day on the weekend and C.S. Lewis and large mugs of tea just seemed to be on the agendum, and then that evening, one of my Terry Pratchett novels is begging for another read.

And then I'd have trouble understanding why people felt that keeping track of the stories when reading two novels concurrently was such a difficult thing to do.

I didn't have the analogy then, but now that I think about it, isn't exactly the same as having more than one favourite tv show? I just went in as much for the written word as I did tv. ....plus never liking soap operas usually gave me some time free each evening.

When you're eight, a choice between Neighbours, the news or reruns of Yes Minister is enough to make flail in frustration in the lack of anything *good* on the tv, so you need some way to amuse yourself before primetime. I happened to have a large sci-fi/fantasy library on hand thanks to my parents, so I'd pick a book and start reading.

Or it was the weekend/holidays and I had to be *somewhere* so I'd go along to work with my mother, who was a cataloguing librarian. And back in the work areas of the library just happened to be a huge collection of sci-fi that someone had willed to the university, and there's only so many times you can wander around the lake, main square or cafeteria before you're bored out your mind.

And this degenerated into reminiscing about books and my childhood fairly quickly. Huh. Well, that's also a trait of mine, I can never keep on topic. (Or I'll have a long rambling story/theory/anecdote that seemingly everyone else considers off-topic, but dammit- you didn't let me finish and it all ties together!) My tangents never seems to match up with what the rest of the world considers 'understandable'.

The upshot of all this being- sometimes I'll effectively 'drop' a fandom entirely, only to wander back months or years later and pick back up where I left off. (And in the intervening period, never actively acknowledge it's something I've like.)

He must have had the time of his life playing Killbas... I just hope before he stepped on set there were enough stagehands to properly season the scenery for him.

Actors with multiple roles in toku: Shindo Gaku

Ad/Eagle Sazer (Chousei Kantai Sazer-X, 2005-2006).

Kakizaki Satoshi/Kamen Rider Killbus (Kamen Rider Build New World : Kamen Rider Cross-Z, 2019).

He was also Sid/Barizorg in Gokaiger.

And now for the actual reason I logged in...

My email got hacked. Now sorting through over 8,000 mail delivery system responses to the crap that got sent out via my hacked account. Looks like it was mainly “Singles in your area” posts going out and maybe some free movie or whatever spam. Did have one good response- a definitely manual unsubscribe post, in caps, very angry. I would have responded manually about the hacked account, but I decided not to, just out of security fears. So Andrew H, sorry I got my email hacked (and I hope he gets a better spam filter). Anyway, ran all existing scans, updated, restarted, ran the scans again, added a new malware scanner, ran that. Ran the other scanners again, then talked to what I call “in-house tech support” and had my password changed. Hopefully that ends my other laptop’s career as a bot-net member.