I Get the Hamilton Hype

Happy Belated Treason Day. 

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This past Saturday was American Independence Day, and I totally forgot to mention it in my last blog. Whoops. Also forgot to send out a happy Canada Day for my neighbors up north. So, happy birth of your nation, as well.

My holiday was mostly uneventful. Hubby was too worn from work - and it was too hot out for him anyway - for us to bother having a barbecue with his dad, so we just kind of chilled at home. I spent most of my day trying out the new summer features in Animal Crossing: New Horizons as well as FINALLY getting my island's flower infestation somewhat under control.

The way flower growth works in this game is that new flowers won't spawn unless watered. However, if it rains, something like 40 or 50 new flowers - depending on your flower placement - will sprout. It's been raining on my island nearly daily for WEEKS, and, with only a couple of hours per night to play now, I don't have the time to uproot the surplus flowers, so the whole thing became a bit out-of-hand. Another little hint at how bad it got: each flower is 32 bells - the game's currency - when deposited into the store drop-box. I think I earned darn near 5000 bells after selling MOST - not all - of my surplus flowers. The rest I used to fill in surface space of different sections of my island - such as a mini-island I have in the center of my rivers, which I have dubbed Flower Isle, and the clifftop I've been using to breed hybrid flowers - so that there is literally nowhere for new flowers to spawn except for the few spaces I purposefully left open for potential hybrids.

Anyway, that was pretty much my Saturday. That, and Hubby and I singing various songs from Hamilton. Thanks to Disney+ Hubby and I were FINALLY able to see the musical. I must say, I get the hype. However, the songs I more-or-less knew going into the show, the ones that were always sung on late-night talk shows to promote the show, or that everyone quotes online - "Alexander Hamilton", "My Shot", "Right Hand Man", and "In the Room Where it Happens" - were the ones stuck in my head least after the musical was through.

Personally, my favorites are the three King George songs, and Eliza's song "Helpless." Quick aside, hearing Jonathan Groff sing as King George made me all the more mad that Kristoff didn't have more songs in the two Frozen movies. Anyway, I also really enjoyed "Washington on Your Side." Also, while watching the show, I first started crying during the song "That Would be Enough," and lost it again at "It's Quiet Uptown." I mean, I know there were other tear-jerker moments, but those were my two big ones.

So, yeah, that was our weekend: watching Hamilton Friday night, and then singing the songs ever since while trying to catch up on island maintenance in AC:NH. Real productive, right?

Happy 4th, from Ghetta Way

The work week has been a bit crazy between projects for the company, figuring out website issues, helping customers for hours on end, and prepping for the next sale which starts this upcoming weekend.

On top of all of that, the past three days I've had a terrible pain in my lower back/behind my right hip. It coincides with, and, for the most part, overtaking my normal menstrual cramping - sorry for any who feel skeeved out reading stuff like that, but let's normalize menstration already, shall we? - so I'm gonna see if it finally eases up in a day or two when I should be done menstruating. In the meantime, though, movement has been very limited, and I've been spending a lot more time laying on pillows in the bedroom.

Not really the best week to try to hit the reset button and attempt writing again. I'm glad I didn't bother signing up for Camp NaNoWriMo this year, because I don't need the added depression of failing another NaNo horribly. Especially since I'd STILL be working on One and the Same, which I wanted to publish September... DECEMBER, at the latest... of 2018.

Just call me George R.R. Martin.... Or, maybe, Hamilton...

From the song "Your Obedient Servant"

Nah... Hamilton wrote almost relentlessly. I might be long-winded like him, but I'm definitely more of a Martin in regards to my actual production speed....

I did find time to read more of Dressed to Confess and In the Dark by zenmisery. Both have fluff and angst in the latest chapters and she killed me with both stories.

I've also been working through the tedious task of trying to organize the hundreds of screen grabs I took the first few weeks of playing AC:NH before I found a MicroSD card to save the images to. Once I started doing that, it was easy to organize the pictures and videos. They all go in a specific date folder when created. The only snafu is that when I make screenshots from videos the pictures save to the date folder on the day they were created; not the day the video was recorded unless it's the same day. Small issue that I can work around.

The early pictures though? I have those by uploading to Facebook and then downloading again. At first, I spent HOURS uploading to Facebook in groups of 5 at a time - the max the Switch allowed - and then downloading them to my computer, and then looking at the date stamp on the Switch file to re-name and organize the image on my computer. It was tedious, and one day I totally blanked out on what I was doing and deleted the images as soon as they were on Facebook, instead of after I organized them on my laptop.

So now I have images I'm trying to figure out when I took them based on the outfit my character is wearing, cross-referencing some images with date stamps on them, and looking for progression of things like flowers blooming in the background to see which photos came first.

Tanuki Facebook sticker
by Yanare Ku

It's tedious work that I really don't NEED to be doing, but I also love seeing the progression of my game in photo form - my early-days pictures remind me how EMPTY the island used to be! - and so I do enjoy having each picture date-stamped for future reference.

But, yeah, that's what I've been up to. What about you fine folks?

Proud Shout Outs and Story Suggestions

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I know that it's the final day of Pride Month, and that this has been a particularly hard month for various reasons. Still, I hope people were able to embrace who they were and found safe spaces to just be them. Enjoy this final day of Pride Month, friends, but please carry that pride and love and strength throughout the rest of the year as well.

You are loved exactly how you are.

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Getting to the point of this blog, I'd like to apologize for missing last week. I had no clue what to talk about because, you guessed it, I haven't written a dang thing. As I tried to mentally plot out what to discuss, I figured I'd check in on a Facebook message from ChibiSunnie. Next thing I know, I'm sending the poor girl an 11pg letter and it was time to pick Hubby up from work! I had debated working on a blog post after picking him up and doing our grocery shopping. Problem there, though, is a) we wouldn't be home until after 1pm, b) it's been taking me 4+ hours to write my posts lately, so this would take up my entire afternoon, c) I still wasn't sure what to talk about, d) I had chores I really needed to get back into a consistent routine with again, and e) I was already getting exhausted and needed something mindless to do.

So, no blog post last week.

The week before, I had continued working on my blog post after picking Hubby up from work, and it kept me until about 3:30 to finish. By the time I was done, I was so drained I ended up napping for about an hour or so. I just didn't have the energy to even promote it. All the more reason I didn't want to bother last week. So, if you did manage to find and read that post from a couple of weeks ago, thank you. This is why I have that email alert option, so you don't miss a post even when I'm too lazy to promote my own work!


Anyway, here we are again, with me STILL not writing anything. I was tempted to also skip today because, well, I'm sure you are sick and tired of reading me go "meh, no writing this week..." for months on end. I know I'm tired of writing it.

However, first and foremost, since I didn't write last week, I didn't promote the week before, and I totally forgot I was writing in June that first week, I wanted to make sure to get today's blog post done in order to have a proper "Happy Pride Month" in just before the month ended.

Secondly, I needed to make sure I got a shout out to my mom. Yesterday marked 25years since she was declared officially cancer-free; kicking breast cancer's ass when she was younger than I am now!

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I'm bummed that this year Hubby and I weren't able to go visit her, for safety reasons among others, but I did get a chance to chat with her last night. She sounded like she managed to still properly celebrate. She told me this year was the one she was most looking forward to:

Mom: "Five years meant I could breathe [the cancer probably wasn't coming back]. Ten years meant I could ease up [on my vigilance]. Fifteen years meant I was probably safe. Twenty years meant it was highly unlikely it would return. Twenty-five years meant I could finally relax."

Well, you did it, Mom! You can start to relax a bit. May the next 25 years go a LOT smoother for you, and a lot less stressful.

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Along with those shout outs, I also had three stories I wanted to promote. None of them are mine, of course, but all three are great reads and on-going projects.

First up, we have a two-fer from zenmisery.

FINALLY having both the time and mental energy to read some fanfic, I started up Zen's story Dressed to Confess.

Summary: A lonely and forlorn Chat comes to visit his Princess and ends up keeping her company every night leading up to her last-ditch effort to capture Adrien’s attention.

Rating: Teen
Current Word Count: 8548
Status: On-going; 4 chapters; updated every week or so

This is an awesome story with just the perfect balance of rot-your-teeth-out fluff and breaks-your-heart angst. Adrien has been feeling particularly dejected at home, so, as Chat Noir, he goes to visit Marinette. He knows she's making an elaborate and gorgeous gown in order to make herself - as she put it - look as beautiful as possible before FINALLY confessing how she feels to her crush. She figures it's all or nothing. If the dress turns out the way she wants, and she feels she's going to look as gorgeous a she's gonna get, and he still rejects her, then she'll finally start to move on.

Chat Noir of course has no clue who she's talking about, and assumes she's talking about Luka, and gets small pangs of jealousy that "this idiot" hasn't already realized how amazing Marinette is and scooped her up. As the story progresses, Chat Noir is all but convinced to do the same with Ladybug: confess one last time, and if she still rejects him it's time to finally move on. The decision to give up on Ladybug becomes easier for Chat Noir to make when he starts to realize that maybe he has fallen in love with Marinette.

The fourth chapter just went up, so I haven't had a moment to read it yet, but the story is already so lovely, and I'm curious how the Love Square is going to collapse in on itself as the story progresses.

Now, while I have been waiting for updates on Dressed to Confess, I've been reading the other story that Zen recently started up. Excuse the pun, but this one is a much darker story overall.

In the Dark

Summary: Lost in complete darkness, Marinette comes across a child who has just been through the same ordeal she went through. Except, she doesn’t know what that ordeal is, how to find his mother, or how she’s going to explain if he ever sees her face when he’s already identified her as Ladybug and she can’t find Tikki.

Rating: Teen
Current Word Count: 8266
Status: On-going; 4 chapters; updated every week or so

Talk about a consistent writer, right? Both stories updated at about the same pace, both have 4 chapters up right now, and both are roughly the same word-count.

Anyway, this story is a gritty and intense story, especially compared to Dressed to Confess. Personally, I am amazed by her ability to switch story vibes as regularly as she does.

In the Dark deals with a great mystery of what exactly happened to everyone. Marinette wakes up with a headache; probably a concussion. Tikki is missing, with no explanation yet as to how or why; not even Marinette remembers. She then has to navigate the pitch black in a rubble-filled collapsed building with a small child in tow she quickly stumbles upon. The boy Luc had asked if she was Ladybug, and she went with that persona despite the lack of powers or suit, as a means to keep the child calm. The "lie" gets a bit more complicated when she runs into Nino in the dark, and then hears Chat Noir's voice. If she's brought into the light before she can find Tikki and properly transform, her secret may be out. She has more to worry about, though, such as the safety of herself, her friends, the child, and his mother. Finally, since she couldn't remember if the damage was caused by an akuma, Marinette has no clue if she can repair the damage that Paris has suffered. The potential inability to repair what happened becomes heavier as Marinette's head wound seems to get worse, and one of her friends is found injured.

I am on the edge of my seat reading through everything, wondering what could possibly go wrong next. It is completely gut-wrenching and the hits come frequently, but in the best way as the stakes keep increasing. The current chapter pattern has also been bouncing between Marinette's POV and Alya's which is great as the two best friends are currently separated. This way you can also get a glimpse of what the rest of Marinette's class is up to during the destruction. The mysteries of what caused everything, how Marinette is going to get out of her identity predicament, where Tikki even is, can the damage be repaired, how are they going to collectively make it to safety, and will everyone be alright just keeps me wanting more.

And when it gets too intense, you can just hop back over to Dressed to Confess or some of her other fluffy stories to get the warm fuzzies again.

Jumping fandoms, Cyhyr uploaded her latest chapter of Displaced by Time.

Summary:
Vesper Scienta wanted nothing more out of life than to make sure her charge and best friend, Prince Aster Amicitia, was happy. She would follow him, always, and keep him safe, as her appointment as Shield dictates she must. She was happy. They were happy.
Then they found the Messengers.
Now she's flitting through time itself, racing against the weakening pulse of the Crystal. It's been almost nineteen years since the Dawn Returned, and the world needs saving again. Vesper just doesn't understand why it has to be her, or why the Messengers separated her and Aster, or why they paired her with the daughter of the Marshal and the son of the King of Light - both from different times.
Time's running out. The star will burn. Raise the dawn, become the night, restore the Crystal.
Vesper just wants to be with Aster again.

Rating: Teen
Current Word Count: 23,043
Status: On-going; 3 chapters

As a refresher, this is a mostly original story taking place within the world of Final Fantasy XV. It follows a party of original characters, with the canon characters sprinkled in as support and timeline guideposts. Very much like how X-Future was.

I do not follow this fandom at all, and my knowledge of this game specifically was mostly learned via Cyhyr's Tumblr posts, but I am still adoring this story. There are time travel and parallel world shenanigans, and parallel stories to the main game storyline. I'm always a sucker for those types of stories. I've also already grown to love Cy's original characters, and I'm rooting them on. I'm curious about their different timelines, and how their parallel universes both differ and connect. We also haven't had any confirmation yet that the timeline the trio is currently on is part of Vesper's or Voti's past, or if this is a completely separate universe than even either of them are from. It's complicated, but intriguing as you try to figure it out alongside the characters. There's also this struggle between duty to save the planet as a whole versus taking the chance to save a loved one, and already two of the characters have been struggling with that choice.

Things get even more complicated in the third chapter as one of the characters tries to save a parent who never actually fathered children in the timeline they're currently on, but you can still sense this emotional cry to save him regardless, and you hope that they succeed in doing so.

I'm sure the story is much more entertaining for any who played the game and can see the game story plot points played out in a different perspective, as well as see how Vesper's actions - and that of her partymates - either affect the timeline, or cause a canonical event to happen regardless (or because of) her intervention. Still, without knowing the canonical story, I'm enjoying this hardy read. It is a bit confusing for non-fandom members, mostly because it's rough to gauge where the characters are in relation to different important cities and the significance of their locations across the whole continent's layout, but it is still written well enough to be followable and entertaining.

Now to get my OWN writing in gear.

Mouse lit a fire under her own butt this past week, and sent me an article about persevering against fear. I'm going to try to follow her lead and see if I can find time to finally just sit and think and create again.

I do miss it.

As I try to re-center myself this July and re-find that 2017/2018 self that managed to create and complete Peeping Tomcat, I also wish to leave you with this reminder:

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Love you, friends. Stay safe out there.