tv talk

song+ Don't keep Me Waiting -Britney Spears -Femme Fatale
book+ DQ9 guide
quest+ starting the Draw EVERY Pokemon Challenge
upper+ i'm really motivated to DO something
downer+ i don't know what
attire+ pajamas
drink+ Dr Pepper

so i kinda watch a lot of tv. not usually when it's actually on tv, but binge-watching a whole series, or multiple seasons in the course of a few days. generally speaking, i've enjoyed most Joss Whedon programs i've watched, though my enjoyment never reaches any kind of fanaticism. i liked Buffy, Angel and Firefly well enough. honestly really loved Dr Horrible, and the Avengers was amazing. i think overall he's a pretty good writer, and for the most part i'm willing to give him a shot when i hear about a new project, though i never blindly throw myself into any of them.

Dollhouse was one show i actually made an effort to keep up with while it was on tv, becasue i knew going in that Fox likes to cancel things that look financially risky, (especially his things- the Firefly effect) and i enjoyed it. i never reccommend it to people because it's actually so hard to boil down the plot for simplicity. i wasn't sure if i was enjoying it for the first several episodes, and the plot was layered and handed out so slowly that i didn't really have any idea of the actual plot until it was season 2 and they had to time-skip and wrap everything up. Kyu's seen probably half the episodes simply because he was home when i was watching it, but he didn't like it and therefore didn't pay much attention to it.

it's a dark show with themes of power and abuse and choice running all over the place through it, and anytime a phrase is repeated, whether by one character or multiple, it's a safe bet that it has something to do with control of their mental state. we see a doll's control tightened: their handler asks "do you trust me?" and their programmed response "with my life" shores up the programmed personality. we see a character fall into madness repeating to himself "i know what i know" before he pulls (more or less) together and sacrifices himself to save lives. we see multiple times after a doll is wiped post-mission "did i fall asleep?" the answer is inevitably "for a little while" this is followed by a similar series of events that focus on "should i go now?" and "if you like" granting the illusion of agency to the empty bodies. there are other control words, but these are the big ones that really make an impact on the overall story.

this lays the foundation for my watching SHIELD. a Whedon project that ties into another Whedon project, with not-terribly-famous, but skilled actors and humor and drama scattered through. for the most part it's been a relatively lighthearted show (especially contrasted with the other two shows i'm keeping up with: Sleepy Hollow- hello apocalyptic things, and Elementary- murderers everywhere). last week's episode i was into and enjoying, until i completely freaked at the end when Coulson was dreaming about Tahiti. the instinctive reply of "it's a magical place" EVERY TIME it's metioned twigged me already, see the repetitive phrasing training above, but i was okay until (in his dream) he woke up and asked "did i fall asleep?" and his masseuse replied "for a little while". i honestly screeched and flailed and pointed and had to explain why i was SO FREAKED OUT to the Kyu, who found it kinda normal and not phenomenally off-putting.

we've been batting Coulson Lives! theories back and forth all along; clone, Life Model Decoy, straight up magical revival, sciencey!revival, skrull duplicate with implanted memories, we've entertained any comic bookish explanation offered, and this is clearly a show in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and not the one Dollhouse happened in, but i think i only made it through the stinger because the dream!conversation did derail and we had that Skye/Ward/May bit.. at least i think that was the end? i was kinda freaked out, so i may just be remembering that part as the end.

but yeah, SHIELD is actually a really good show, my total Dollhouse-PTSD fit aside, and anyone who'd been wondering it it's worth watching should definitely give it a shot.

not much going on, really

song+ I Have A Dream -Tangled
book+ DQ9 guide
quest+ starting the Draw EVERY Pokemon Challenge
upper+ i'm really motivated to DO something
downer+ i don't know what
attire+ pajama pants and Supergirl tank
drink+ water

huh, it's Sunday again already.i swear we just had one, but it's possible i'm losing time again. in any event, yesterday Kyu and i caught up on a week of television, then caught the Dr Who 50th Anniversary Special, which i really enjoyed. it wasn't perfect, but it was really entertaining.

lately people keep telling me that various shows are really good and i should be watching them, but i rarely enjoy recommended shows as much as people think i will. even with shows i like and keep up with i'm not the best at actual regular viewing. i'm also glad that my week doesn't revolve around plugging mysel;f into the tv anymore, i like watching three shows all on one night with Kyu, we both feel entertained, and we have 6 other evenings free to do whatever we want the rest of the week. sometimes it's two nights a week, but it's a system that works for us.

i'm still playing Pokemon X pretty regularly, but yesterday i took a break for tv and reading, and DQ9, and it was nice. the great thing about this one is there's no penalty (even a cosmetic one) for not playing the game. some games things happen whether you're there or not and taking a break leads to visible results, this pokemon's just like 'whatever, do what sounds like fun' and i like that. it bothered the crap out of me when i was playing Diamond/ Pearl/ Platinum and i'd take a day off and when i returned my badges were dull and needed to be shined. or in Animal Crossing, i'd take time off and the village would descend into chaos and be overrun with weeds. i totally don't need my games guilt-tripping me for not playing them more.

been drawing.. mostly pokemon though

song+ Get the Girl Back -Hanson -Anthem
book+ nothing. still
quest+ starting the Draw EVERY Pokemon Challenge
upper+ i've got like a quarter of my watercolor paper already cut to size
downer+ there's like 700plus pokemon now!
attire+ black pants and Tinkerbell tee
drink+ dr pepper

i guess i'm a few hours early today? which i think makes up for posting late Sunday last week. xD i'm still enjoying pokemon X (and Y too) but the obsessive drive to play every moment has indeed dialed back a good bit. i took a day off and started up Lego Batman 2 Friday, since Kyu bought it for my birthday, i just wanted to beat the first one before i started the second.

art-wise, i've been working on pokemon drawings that aren't part of the DRAW THEM ALL challenge. i spent last weekend, and Tuesday at knit night too, working on sketches for the field guide for the story i'm kinda writing for my character-based Pokemon Y play through. i want a sketch to accompany every post, and now i think i've got five done? there's a LONG way to go before that'll be ready for sharing.

i spent tonight cutting 11x15 watercolor paper sheets down to six 4x5 and two 3x5 rectangles each. the 4x5 will be for the DRAW THEM ALL challenge, the 3x5 will be for testing technique so i don't screw up the properly sized paper. xD i screwed up the first sheet and only got 4 4x5 out of it, so out of the whole pad i managed 178 good bits.. there's currently 718 pokemon, meaning i still need to cut down like 3 more 11x15 pads of watercolor paper. from what i've seen online, no one person has ever managed to complete this challenge without recruiting help. i don't have a time frame for completion, it's really just something i think will help me get used to drawing again, something other than fashion sketches.

i spent a few hours today drawing on the backing from the cut-down pad. i drew Rory's favorite evolutionary line because cute fluffy animals make everything better (and maybe i'll get around to shipping off it and some of the other art i've meant to share) the only picture i have is a shot from my cell phone because it's 5am and the apartment is too dark to forgo flash, but the flash glares off the markers i used. my cell phone can technically handle the light level, but fuzzed up the entire top row of the picture. *sigh*just pretend the art is all as sharp as the bottom row.

anyway Rory, this is for you! and eventually it'll make its way into your possession, like in a reasonable proximity and everything! xD

fall is egg nog season

song+ Don't Keep Me Waiting -Britney Spears -Femme Fatale
book+ nothing
quest+ custom Sailor Moon character dolls
upper+ lots of creative ideas!
downer+ money's easier to spend than earn
attire+ pajama pants and a dark blue tank
drink+ dr pepper

this week's been okay, not a ton has happened. i'm still playing pokemon, but not as obsessively. Tuesday i spent most of knit night training up caterpillars into butterflies. yep.

mom picked me up Saturday for our quilt class and the best part of the day was the talking, until the egg nog milkshakes happened. they were awesome. i seriously lack the words to describe the deliciousness.

not much else has happened, but at least i know what day it i this week? xD

more or less

song+ Something's Coming -West Side Story
book+ nothing
quest+ custom Sailor Moon character dolls
upper+ lots of creative ideas!
downer+ money's easier to spend than earn
attire+ pajama pants and a dark blue tank
drink+ milk

i said the pokemon haze had lifted but all weekend i thought it was the wrong day, so maybe not so much as i'd thought. xD it's Monday, but i've been feeling a day ahead, so i totally thought it was Tuesday when i got up. nope, that's tomorrow.

yesterday was interesting, i was feeling an intense urge to just get out of the apartment, so i asked Kyu to walk to the thrift store with me. we went to the one about a half hour walk away instead of the one a ten minute walk away, just for variety. in the end i didn't find anything though, so we detoured to the art store, where i bought a replacement red marker, and a detail brush suitable for faceups as i've been without one for some time now. i also bought a selection of photo-size (and smaller) canvases for doll-scale paintings. no idea just what i'll paint on them yet, but i've got time to figure it out.

we stopped for Chinese food on the way back home, and i realized just how odd it was that i'd left the apartment for more than just dog-walking for four days in a row. that doesn't sound like much, i know, but it feels like a real achievement. some days it's hard getting out of bed, much less through the front door, so four days of going places? awesome.

the pokemon haze has lifted

song+ ah.. Timebomb -Kylie Minogue
book+ nothing
quest+ custom Sailor Moon character dolls
upper+ lots of creative ideas!
downer+ money's easier to spend than earn
attire+ pajama pants and a dark blue tank
drink+ strawberry kiwi juice

after two solid weeks i'm ready for a break from pokemon. my brain is still in that really nerdy space though, because i've returned my attention to something i devoted my self fanatically to some time ago: Sailor Moon.

it's hard to describe just what Sailor Moon as a series meant to me when i was younger without getting into why i needed it so much. there are things i got from it that i couldn't ind in any other program or story then. i can now, but the importance of finding them then still matters and most of my affection for the story is rooted in nostalgia. by no means do i think it was a pioneer visually, at times the animation was terrible, and there's a part in one of the books where a character was drawn with two elbows, it made it past editorial and through localization multiple times and still the error persists. basically, without getting into examples of things, Sailor Moon was the first thing to consistently tell me it was okay to be different, to want different things, that i wasn't less for being so or wanting other than what was expected.

it's a story i re-read every so often, and i'm looking forward to the new animation it's getting, because at times the old one is painful to watch. mostly though i've been thinking that i want dolls of the characters. not BJDs, which i don't have space for and would be hideously expensive. i've been looking into customizing fashion dolls. i learned how to do a custom Barbie ages ago (even if i never finished her, re-rooting hair is not something i enjoy), and i looked at the Monster High dolls because there's already a huge community dedicated to customizing them, but i think i found my answer in their sister series- Ever After High. it's still a pretty new line, but all i need is re-wigging and slight alterations to existing face paint if i go with them. and making their clothes, but that's the thing i most wanna do.

the best thing about customizing a MH/EAH doll is that i shouldn't need to re-root, they're basically compatible with the wigs made for Liv dolls, so slight styling is all really. it's not an immediate project, i'm still in the planning stage, but i've already listed which dolls are best suited to each sailor, and i'm reading up on the differences between painting and sealing resin vs vinyl. it's a very entertaining project thus far, and i've yet to spend a dime, so i imagine it'll only become more fun once i'm actually holding them and making changes.