Pronoun Trouble

For the third year in a row, I have gotten the same book from both my parents and my brother's family.

This year, in an attempt to prevent exactly that, I set up Google Docs wish lists for everyone aside from me, so we could share ideas and coordinate on what we were getting, so duplicates didn't happen. I was hoping to broadly hint that they should do the same for me.

It apparently didn't happen, because I now have two copies of The Redwall Cookbook. They are going on my shelf next to my two copies of The Raven Boys from last year, and The City We Became from the year before.

Which, well. The Redwall Cookbook and The Raven Boys, my sister-in-law and my brother have a somewhat better excuse for? Since my parents gave me the first copies at my birthday, which they were not present for, and they gave me the second copies for Christmas. But still!

I was even dead certain that SIL was going to get me Baking Yesteryear for one of those, to the point where I didn't bother putting it on my list in hopes of avoiding another duplicate gift, but she got me a book about food and The Resistance (general) instead.

New plan for next year: Stop putting quite so many very specific items on my wish lists, start putting more generalized item categories on it, since apparently that's what people prefer to shop for anyway. (But first figure out what those categories might be.)

Surprise podfic for me! Podfic of Into the Swamp, performed by kbirb pods (kbirb).

"Into the Swamp" is an ATLA x Princess Bride crossover (sorta). Post-series, Toph and Zuko track down Sokka's missing space sword to one of the Earth Kingdom's fire swamps.

A very good performance, and now people have options for which version they might prefer to listen to, depending on mood, preference, personal interpretation, etc.

Christmas Eve Dinner was pretty darn delicious, if I do say so myself! The risotto could've been better, but that's not a big problem. (Conclusion: Yes, I still dislike Parmesan cheese.)

A bit more information: Mom, Dad, and I had been planning on doing a Christmas Eve dinner instead of a Christmas dinner on the understanding that my brother and his family were doing something else for Christmas dinner. Turns out we were mistaken, which we found out when my brother's family showed up about half an hour earlier than they said they'd be by (this is usual for them) and it turned out they hadn't eaten yet 😅 Whoops! I may see about taking a more proactive role in planning for whatever our next family get-together is...

Gift giving results:
- Dad was quite pleased with his whiskey, and while he helped himself to some tonight, he's hoping to save the rest for after he finishes his current inferior bottle of whiskey
- Mom was pleased with her DVDs; I got her all three Disney Descendants movies, and also threw in a copy of Pixar's Soul, which I found in the $5 bin at the grocery store
- My brother and SIL definitely at least put on a good show of liking their matching "Library Frog Has a Taste for Bookworms" shirts; Nibling got a matching onesie, plus an "I'm (a bat) giving you two thumbs up!" onesie, and probably has no real opinion on them
- Nibling definitely seemed to get a bit of a kick out of the plush corn rattle, though right now nibling's big thing is "pushing things on the floor", so we'll see if they warm up to it at all later 😂
- SIL's mother was quite charmed to actually get a hippopotamus for Christmas; I'm down to my last crocheted hippo now, but it was 100% worth it

Gifts received:
- She-Ra POP seasons 1 through 3 on DVD (Netflix and Dreamworks, release season 4 and 5 on region one DVD already!)
- Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
- Some chocolate
- The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin x 2 (one copy from Mom and Dad, one from SIL; oops!)
- Project Hail Mary by Anthony Weir (hardcover)
- Some nice shirts that are probably too small (sorry, Mom and Grandma; I may have to start strategically reminding you that I wear 3X, not 2X)
- An I.O.U. from my brother, who has been working extra hours at the hospital pharmacy and hasn't been able to get out much

And also one thing that's probably not really a present, but I'm counting it anyway: Some nice cuddles with Molly the dog, happening right this very minute ♥ Awwww~!

It is here, today! The birthday of me!

Acquisitions:

* How To by Randall Munroe (signed first edition oweifawe;l!!!)
* Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse
* Steven Universe the Movie
* A very large tray of white chocolate mixed berry bread pudding
* Pokémon Shield
* in the dark, be your light by alexseanchai (first chapter only so far, trans girl Chatonne Noir, love square, soul bond, eeeeee)
* Many, many birthday wishes (♥♥♥)

Plus several things that were total coincidences (I am counting this, FTR) and also more than a few self-indulgent purchases on Black Friday.

Happy birthday to me!

...Was yesterday, but who's counting?

Anyway, something I didn't mention on my Friday report is that I missed making my Opening Ceremonies "Here are things you can do to make the lives of PWD easier" speech, again. Either I missed my cue (entirely possible; I was called to the Bridge in the middle of Opening Ceremonies to deal with a gluten-related problem that may or may not have been an emergency; I'll probably ask for details at the postmortem), or the MC didn't actually give the cue for Staffers With Other Business.

The Staff Art Table closed out having made just over $1,000 before sales tax; about $450 of that was my own sales :3 I may be running a table with one of my costaffers at Icon this year, as well, though I do want to first discuss with her the option of the Art Sho, which would cost her less to participate in.

For acquisitions, I bought a box set of the first three seasons of Slayers, and the season one and two box sets of Wedding Peach, because I am a sucker for magical girl stuff. I also bought the first volume of Fallen, by Ogawa Buruku, one of our guests of honor this year, and some postcards by the staffer I mentioned in the previous paragraph, because she does gorgeous work. In fact, here is a link to her Deviantart account. Definitely check out the Senshi Royalty Project and the Talented Princesses collection, which were originally done in watercolors and both of which she had some postcard/greeting card prints of. She is just ridiculously talented.

Hmm, what else. Oh, apparently there was someone there from Cosplay Magazine, and one of my costaffers really talked up my work in the Accessibility Department to them <3 And I just - alawejfovdisd??? <3 <3 <3? Also, one of our returning attendees (uses a walker, has chronic pain and arthritis) basically showered me with compliments, and shared a really fantastic story from Friday: She had slipped and fallen, knocking her purse and walker down, and before she had even hit the ground, three people had come over to help - one put everything back in her purse, one righted her walker, and a third helped her up and made sure she was okay. She told me that probably 95% of our attendees are just really fantastic about accommodating folks, and I just about burst with pride on behalf of the convention. Anyway, I really, really want some minions next year, because I wasn't able to do nearly everything I wanted to this year, and I just want to reach for the stars now.

Oh, the Staff Art Table was also one of three tables in the Marketplace selling Pride oriented stuff, and I accidentally drew a lot of folks in by hanging up my Ace Blanket ^^a Unfortunately, I only had two smaller-ticket Ace pride items, and those were snatched up in very short order on the first day of the con, and I had probably at least eight other people asking for some. Moral of the story: I am definitely making at least a dozen Ace Pride Piggies and three Asexuowls for next year. Probably starting now, since I'll likely be too preoccupied leading up to the con next year.

Staffers were also given three Excellent Cosplay ribbons to hand out to people who had, well, excellent cosplays, to encourage them to keep attending. I handed all three of mine out on Friday: One to a Sailor Saturn that I met on the elevator, one to a tiny Captain America who was accompanied by their grown-up Winter Soldier guardian person, and one to a Ms. Marvel just as the Marketplace was closing, who proceeded to freak out happily. lightbird, I also saw a Helga cosplayer who made me think of you, and I made sure to get her picture :)

I think that's about it for highlights. Here's to next year!

I finally have a TV in my room again! It's been over a year since I last had one in here, possibly two, and my DVD collection hasn't stopped growing in the interim. Unfortunately, my opportunities/motivation to watch DVDs only shrank without a convenient viewing apparatus in my room, as otherwise I have to camp out in the kitchen (inconvenient for viewing, since I usually sit at a ninety degree angle to the screen) or the living room (usually staked out by my parents, primarily my dad, and with a DVD player I haven't bothered to learn the ins and outs of).

I found my new TV at a secondhand store months after giving up on finding one with a built-in DVD player - I'd checked all the local secondhand stores as well as Target and Best Buy (including their websites) with no luck. I'd rejected my laptop as relatively inconvenient, since I usually like to hold my crafting supplies in my lap, and none of the portable DVD players were any more appealing to me, having much smaller screens than my laptop. I'm still somewhat amazed that I finally managed to find one, and that it wasn't outrageously expensive.

Anyway, with my new TV, I should be making progress on my various crafting projects as well as my extensive DVD collection. ...Though I am taking a brief detour to watch something I've already seen once before I start anything new. I guess we'll see after that!

One of my favorite stories that I've written is a short original fairy-tale I called Courting Yuki-Onna. The idea came to me one day when I had been walking in the falling snow and started thinking of the activity as "courting Yuki-Onna". I wrote the story shortly after that.

Then, a while back, ashiiblack offered her podficcing services in the Buy It Now section of a fandom charity event. I had been thinking wistfully of getting Courting Yuki-Onna recorded for a while, and her offer was in my (very limited) price range. After giving one of her podfics a quick listen to see if I liked her style (and I did), I pounced on her offer.

Ashiiblack did an amazing job on my story. She reads it like a legend or fairy-tale, which is how I wrote it, and with perfect emotion. I squirmed with delight when listening to it the first time, and am very much looking forward not only to listening to it again (and again, and again), but to sharing it with my RL friends and family.

You can find the podfic available both in streaming and to download below. The version with music is really wonderful; the song Ashiiblack chose is an excellent match, and it enhances the fantastic nature of the story. If you have audio processing issues, though, do not fear, for Ashiiblack was kind enough to provide a version without music as well. I've also linked the original written version, if listening is not your thing, for whatever reason.

I hope you enjoy my story and, if you are able to, Ashiiblack's wonderful recording of it.



Version with music: Listen | Download
Version without music: Listen | Download
Written version: Courting Yuki-Onna

As of 1:30pm US Central time today, I have officially Caught Them All. All 649 Pokemon, registered in my 'dex and stored in my in-game PC.

Hardest to catch: Kyogre. Damn thing just kept knocking itself out. I was seriously frustrated with it by the time I finally managed to catch it. I totally would've used my masterball on it, but I'd already used it on Latias. Rassa-frassa roaming Pokemon. Rassa-frassa Double Edge.

Hardest to acquire: Porygon-Z. Every other solitary evolves-by-trading-with-an-item-attached Pokemon I managed to get by offering its pre-evolution holding the necessary item for the same Pokemon, hoping that someone out there would understand what I was after: a trade for the same. Every other Pokemon that I tried this with, I got what I was looking for within three trades. Hell, the Scizor I ended up with even had the Pokerus! For Porygon-Z, though? I traded out six Porygon2s and still didn't get what I was after. I finally quit when I was down to my last Dubious Disc, and resorted to trading with myself when I picked up a DS from Half Price Books for ultra cheap. Not my preferred method, but it got me what I wanted.

Getting the Shiny Charm: Still a less frustrating method of increasing the chance of finding a shiny Pokemon than chaining in DPPt. [/two cents]

Of course, come October 12th, I'll have a buttload more Pokemon to catch, but I suppose that's part of the draw.


I followed up my Pokemon acquisition by stopping by Target to investigate their stock of Lego collectable mini-figs. I've a friend who works there and who let me know that Series 9 was back in stock, and we (by which I mean my dad, who is the actual collector) are still missing the plumber from that set, so off I went. I made it through one whole box, then noticed there were two more on the next end cap over. Having learned from a fellow collector/searcher that Series 11, the latest, was also available, I decided I'd had more than enough of Series 9 and needed some variety in my life.

I then spent close to an hour feeling out different mini-figs in the Series 11 display. When I'd finally gotten fed up with that group, I'd identified fourteen of the sixteen different figures by touch alone. Somehow a duplicate managed to migrate into my pile of singles before I made it to the cash register, but one duplicate for fourteen figures is still pretty damn good.

Of course, after Dad finally got home so we could unwrap them, he went back on our previous deal of: "You find me any figure I'm missing, I'll reimburse you the cost of it plus a dollar. Any duplicates you bring home, I reimburse you minus a dollar." He went with half of that, which annoys me, but I did know going that he's a cheapskate before this, so. I'll probably lay down a firmer agreement for the next set, though. Probably a sliding scale, of cheaper for early and more expensive for later. I'll have to give it some thought.

I ordered a whole bunch of plastic safety eyes from GlassEyesOnline last week, and they showed up this afternoon. They look fantastic, though the 12mm and smaller eyes have a different washer style than I'm used to. I'm totally looking forward to using all of them ♥

I ordered: 55 pairs 12mm slit-pupil eyes (20 pair green, 15 pair gold, 15 pair blue, 5 pair clear); 15 pairs 12mm round pupil eyes (5 pairs each blue, gold, and brown); 15 pairs 10mm round pupil eyes (10 pair black, 5 pair brown); 50 pairs 6mm eyes (all black); and 15 pairs 15mm iridescent slit-pupil eyes (1 pair of each color). The 12mm eyes are for cats and dogs, the 10mm eyes are for itty bitty piggies, the 6mm eyes are for exactly 50 mini corncobs that my mom is having commissioned to send out to our various family members, and the 15mm eyes will be for dragons and possibly griffins as well.

I seriously need to make at least three more griffins soon. Two of my solid-colored griffins are out of stock (black and white), as well as my seal-point griffin. I also need to re-take one of my cheetah griffin pictures, so I can list it on Etsy (and also show it off here, because cheetah griffin). And I reeeaaaaally wanna make another dragon, but they aren't exactly the fastest moving plushies on the market. Which is a shame, because they're GORGEOUS. /biased

I also need to be making more cats and dogs. They've been moving at a decent pace via a local shop I sell them through, which was a pleasant surprise. I've had a couple of people ask after Minions a la Despicable Me as well, so I'll likely be whipping up one of those in the near future. And I really, really wanna try "tapestry" crocheting sometime soon; I've thought about doing a Pokemon sprite, but I think I'm going to try making the Welcome to Night Vale logo instead. And the enter it in a contest or something because CONTESTS!

Which reminds me: I need to look into vendor registration for that local speculative fiction convention. Maybe someone there will shell out for a dragon or two...

Let's get this taken care of.

( The Good )

( The Bad )

( The Haul )

That's pretty much all for this year. Still looking forward to the next staff meeting and the next convention in general.