Fun With Fandom Essays

 Sooooooo, about that "positive turning point" I talked about last time..... 

Yeeeeeaaaaaaaaaah.

I don't know what it is, but I've just been avoiding my blog for a while now. I enjoy writing this. I like talking to you guys about what's been going on in my life and how that's been affecting my writing. I like promoting my own stories here, and promoting stories I read, and helping myself figure out writing issues that have been bogging me down. The more I talk here about what my issue is and why it's an issue, the more the problem unravels in my brain. 

I also enjoy having a time that's always dedicated to writing.

I truly do love having this blog, and I'm proud this one actually lasted for years on end (as opposed to my first 3 attempts to start up a blog that all crashed and burned within the first couple of months).

But, lately? I haven't been the biggest fan of waking up at a decent hour on my Tuesdays off so I have time to work on my blog in the morning, post by noon, and then have the next ten hours or so to do other things for my day off. Instead, I just want to lay in bed, snuggling the hubby until noon. Or, I get up by 8am, but then drag my feet and don't start actually working on this blog until closer to 10am. At that point, especially with my track record of taking 4 or 5 hours to write up my weekly post, edit it, and promote it, I wonder if it's worth starting my post. It won't publish until after noon, and I'm now cutting into the rest of my day off.

That might be the biggest thing: for whatever reason it takes me HOURS to write these weekly posts. I love writing them. I do. I promise you I do. I guess I'm just down on myself that they take SO. LONG. to write and post. Especially when I feel like I'm barely saying anything in them anymore. It's been rare, particularly this past year, to have any writing to talk about. 

Plus, we're creeping up on a year since we started socially distancing. We haven't seen most of our friends that whole time, and I haven't seen my side of the family since. Also, aside from the occasional quick talk with Hubby's work friends while at the store, or attempts to chat with my coworkers, or a short yell across the driveway to Dragnime the few times we catch him outside, or the one time Rozsavaria popped by to gift us our belated Christmas gifts, we haven't socialized with anyone in person since Christmas. I'm a social person, and I guess I'm having a rougher time with this than I originally thought (especially since we didn't socialize with ANYONE outside the times I popped by the grocery store for TWO MONTHS when our state went into lockdown last year, so this isn't as bad comparatively). Instead of working on my writing, or concentrating on these blog posts, or even trying to catch up on my reading, I've been spending a LOT of time lately just lurking on Facebook and Tumblr. Just CONSTANTLY refreshing and scrolling through my news feed and dash. Leaving comments EVERYWHERE in hopes of getting some sort of contact back: a reply, a reblog with added commentary, comments on my stories that I can respond to. Anything, really.

Which, I mean, both kind of baffles me with regards to missing last week's post, as well as explains it?

The baffling portion is that I had FINALLY finished publishing Perfect Doesn't Need to be Perfect. So you'd think I'd want to be here to rejoice that my Christmas-themed story was done.

On the flipside, I saw a post on Tumblr complaining about a plot point in one of the episodes. I thought I had a simple thought about why that was and why I wasn't annoyed by that writing choice. I had seen these two users in particular having more and more conversation threads within the fandom, with other members chiming in, and I craved the possibility of being included in these kind of discourses.

Plus, added bonus, if I could become more active in these kinds of discussions, I might be more recognized within the fandom, which could possibly bring my Tumblr blog more followers, which, in turn, could mean more readers for my stories. It was a way to network within the fandom community while also helping me with my lack-of-socializing problem.

Win-win, right?

Weeeellllllll. Apparently, I had more than just a few thoughts on why it made perfect sense for Marinette to reveal she was Multimouse in front of Chat Noir SPECIFICALLY so Ladybug would have a reason to not give Marinette the mouse miraculous again. I'll get into a bit more detail in a minute for those who don't know the show/episode, but my point is that, instead of working on this blog post last week, I spent my four or five hours working on this 4700-some word meta essay about the episode and series in general.

If you care enough to read my essay, you can do so here.

So, a few more details about the initial post. This does contain spoilers for the season 3 episodes "Ikkari Gozen" and "Kwamibuster", just an FYI.

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Okay, so in the episode "Kwamibuster", Adrien's and Marinette's science teacher spotted Plagg eating cheese she had set out, as well as Tikki trying to stop Plagg. She went on TV to announce her discovery, however, since technology can't register magic, the teacher wasn't able to get any recorded proof of the kwamis. Instead, she drew crude drawings of Plagg and Tikki.

Adrien and Marinette, recognizing the kwamis and knowing they were both spotted in their school, begin wondering if that means their partner is also one of their classmates. Adrien almost INSTANTLY figures out that Ladybug is Marinette, but Plagg brushes him off and reminds him he's not supposed to know. Meanwhile, Marinette is too focused on "Chat Noir could be a student here, and what if he tries to figure out who I am" (which is, to be fair, EXACTLY what's going on) to bother trying to figure out who Chat Noir is. Regardless, both heroes know they need to think of an explanation to throw their partner off their scent.

Chat Noir tells Ladybug he has no clue what his kwami was doing "at that elementary school" which was enough to throw Marinette off his trail. She believes that since Chat Noir doesn't know it's a high school he must not go to it. On the flipside, Marinette goes a more complicated route, as she usually does.

The teacher had been akumatized into Kwamibuster, and has the ability to vacuum up kwamis into her magical backpack. Yes, this is intentionally a nod to Ghostbusters. Anyway, this magical vacuum can even pull kwamis out of powered up miraculouses, instantly taking the hero's powers away and detransforming them. So Marinette, after Tikki was stolen, has to find a way to get from the battle to Master Fu to try to get some other miraculous. That way she has the power to get Tikki back, and can then cleanse the akuma from there. Marinette picks the mouse miraculous (or rat, if you're truly going by the Chinese zodiac). It has the power to split the user multiple times, but shrinking them each time they split. Marinette wears all of the available miraculous, splitting herself enough times for each piece of herself to go with a different kwami.

There's a bunch of strategy here about purposefully getting herself captured in order to get Tikki and Plagg back, but I won't get into that. It's not important. What is important is that, after the akuma is broken out of the object and Kwamibuster reverts to the science teacher, Marinette uses the many bits of herself to temporarily trap the akuma (instead of cleansing it), and then uses one of her clones to create an illusion. She does this by pairing the mouse and fox miraculouses together so she could still be split, but also use Trixx's Mirage power.

For this illusion, she creates Ladybug getting Tikki back, powering back up, cleansing the akuma, and restoring everything via her Miraculous Ladybug power. Now that it looks like the battle is fully won, as it always is, an illusion of a full-sized Multimouse - the name Marinette gave herself as the mouse superhero - walks up to Ladybug, and takes off her miraculous to give it back; revealing herself to be Marinette. Now Chat Noir has "seen" Ladybug and Marinette standing side-by-side; "proving" that Marinette isn't Ladybug. The Ladybug illusion then tells the Marinette illusion that her identity has been compromised, and so she can never be Multimouse again. This is clearly Marinette's way of explaining away why Ladybug and Multimouse could never work together again; preventing Chat Noir from ever suggesting it or wondering why Ladybug would pick a different mouse bearer in the future.

It really was quite clever. EXCEPT, instead of Illusion-Ladybug telling Illusion-Marinette that the science teacher now knows her identity, and so Marinette can never have the miraculous again, for her own safety, Illusion-Ladybug implies that Marinette can never be Multimouse again because CHAT NOIR now knows who she is.

Admittingly, that's poor writing on the creators' parts. The added sting, though, is that, in the episode "Ikkari Gozen" Ladybug tells Kagami that she could never be Ryuko again specifically because HAWK MOTH knows who the dragon-themed superhero is. Same reason why Ladybug can't give Chloe back the bee miraculous.

So, now this Tumblr user Infinitysgrace is all bent out of shape that Illusion-Ladybug stating Marinette can't be Multimouse again because Chat Noir knows who she is puts him on the same threat level as Hawk Moth. Another user came in again questioning the need for the secret identities between the heroes. That's when I wanted to step in to explain how the writers actually did set it up in-universe very nicely to explain Marinette's logic in not letting Chat Noir know.

OKAY! SPOILERS OVER NOW! YOU CAN START READING AGAIN IF YOU SKIPPED THE LAST PART!

Anyway, I put in a LOT of time - and paused to rewatch certain bits of the show to make sure I got my wording right - trying to write up this comprehensive essay explaining why Marinette implied what she did about trusting Chat Noir with the identities of the part-time heroes. I was pretty proud of my work. It was a bit lengthy for the kind of conversation the users typically had, so I wasn't sure I was going to be able to continue a discussion as I wanted, but still. 

What I did not expect was to get a response like this:

Let's just zero in here to the part that really surprised me:

They then went off about how the rules established within canon - within that very season - didn't line up with the "Chat Noir is the same threat level as Hawk Moth" outside of this one episode. Something I had addressed in my essay.

Then they stressed, "As for the fact that he often gets controlled by Akuma victims, that isn’t a good enough excuse." First of all, I know this person SUPER sympathizes with Adrien/Chat Noir, but... uh... yeah? Yeah it is? Regardless, I also addressed that in my essay. 

Then they finished with "But no. There just isn’t good justification for him not to know who the part-time heroes are that can’t be matched with not just things in the show that contradict why he can’t know but also better justifications for why he should know." Again, things I believe I had addressed in my essay. If there were things I had missed, and Infinity had pointed them out - "what about this scene, or that scene, and I think you misinterpreted this scene" etc - I would have been fine with that. It would be the discussion I was craving. A true back-and-forth analysis.

However, the fact that they claimed that they were tired and "can we please not?" as if my essay had irritated them something fierce, but then wrote back a comment that makes me wonder if they actually bothered READING my essay!?

And then this person also came in with something I HAD ADDRESSED IN MY ESSAY (like, I get it, it was LONG, but if you're going to comment on something, at least read it first????):

I just- I was-

Hacker Girl
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by Birdman, Inc

I'm still a bit salty about this. I've also avoided anything else involving Infinitysgrace because clearly you cannot change their opinions on how the shows writing is "clearly terrible." I mean, they love the show and the characters and are "anti-fandom-salt" but still just HATES on the writers for their poor writing. And, I mean, I get it. There are parts where I too am like "you lost the character there, writers. What are you doing?" but....

I dunno. Point is, clearly writing the essay instead of my blog post last week was time well spent.

Sooooo, how about what I WOULD have talked about last week? 

Yeah, let's go back to happy thoughts: I FINISHED MY CHRISTMAS STORY! Wooooo!

I had failed miserably with getting it done within the timeframe I had wanted, but I WAS able to edit, publish, and promote my story throughout Super Bowl Sunday (which was February 7th, for those who didn't know). It kept me darn-near twelve hours to post the last five chapters, but it was done!

I was then too exhausted to keep track of my stats for that week mark, but here's where we are now:

FFN: 1743 views, 7 faves, 12 followers, and 15 reviews
AO3: 321 hits, 21 kudos, 4 bookmarks, and 30 comments!
DA: 10,415 views!? 5 faves, but no comments

Total Results: 12,479 views, 33 faves, 16 followers, and 45 reviews

Tumblr Notes: 47 notes; 31 likes, 13 reblogs, and 3 comments

Reviews:
  Actually, most of the reviews are fairly lengthy, so you can just hit up FFN and AO3 to read them if you really want.

So. Hold up. Let's, uh... let's check out the actual breakdown of the individual DA chapter views, because over 10,000 hits on flippin' DEVIANT ART is blowing my mind.

1. "1k views" - which, side note, is, I think, the first time anything I've posted has hit the thousand-views mark???
2. 280 views (and 2 faves)
3. 139 views
4. 327 views
5. 777 views (and a fave)
6. 189 views
7. 1k views again (and 3 faves; one was a person who faved one of the earlier chapters as well)
8. "5k views"!!!!! Like... WHAT!? (no faves though)
9. 398 views
10. 348 views
11. 143 views
12. 814 views

THIS IS ON DEVIANT ART, MIND YOU! I feel like I can't stress that enough. Meanwhile, some of these chapters got more views than the entirety of the story over on AO3. Ya know, a place PEOPLE TYPICALLY GO TO READ FANFIC.

The bots must have really loved my story over on DA, huh?

Honestly, I'm not sure what I could have included in either the story, the notes, or the tags to have attracted the bots, but I'm pretty sure that's what happened there. The only hit counts I remotely trust are all of the ones under 400. Still, it's a nice little ego-boost to know my stories are even getting that much love over on a mostly visual-art site.

Another thing to note for those view counts is how I batch-published chapters. Day 1, I uploaded chapters 1 thru 3. Next were chapters 4 & 5. A few days later I published chapters 6 & 7, and then on a Sunday I published chapters 8 thru 12. 

Either way, if you're one of my DA viewers, please let me know in the comments. I've love to meet you.

And if you want to join the masses, but haven't yet, here's one last reminder of where you can find my story.

Perfect Doesn't Need to be Perfect

On FanFiction       On ArchiveOfOurOwn       On DeviantArt       On Tumblr

Honestly, I'm just happy that Taurus Pixie got so much joy out of the story. It was, in part, to help me get the story out of my head after re-reading Pixie's story had birthed the idea, but it was also largely a way of helping perk her up after a super rough year. So... yay! Glad I was able to help at least a little.

With that project done, I was planning on working on a fluff story for Valentine's Day, or at least finish off the final two prompts from last year's Love Square Fluff Week. Sadly, I have done neither. A year later and I STILL can't get the prompt "Your Voice" to form the way I want it to. What I had written up - Marinette and Adrien doing trust exercises in phys-ed by taking turns being blindfolded while the other walks them through an obstacle course through verbal instruction alone - is sweet, but also feels a bit... I dunno. I think it would work better as a form of visual media than prose. Plus, I don't really have an ending for it? Also, it was supposed to be a set-up scene for the core story of Ladybug and Chat Noir recognizing each other's voices after a day of paying extra attention to Marinette's and Adrien's voices respectively. But the obstacle course bit is already about 8 pages long! 

Soooooo, yeah. I still don't know what I'm doing for those last two prompts, and I never did get anything written for Valentine's Day.

I guess I'm still more burnt out than I gave credit. So, looks like I'm gonna put myself on another mini-hiatus. We'll see how a week of that goes.

Hopefully, I'll catch you guys next week.

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Positive Turning Point (hopefully)

Hello, all, and happy Groundhog's Day!

Will Mr. Resetti see his shadow this morning?

Between all of the snow and the fact that the
light is in front of him, it's pretty unlikely!

With the big Nor'easter that just blew through the United States yesterday/last night, good luck even finding poor Punxsutawney Phil!

Oh! Oh wait... nope. Nope, Phil DID see his shadow. I DON'T WANT SIX MORE WEEKS OF WINTER!!!! 

Welp. Guess it means I'm still stuck inside, which is probably for the best because I've been SUUUUUUUUPER slacking on both writing AND reading!

I mean, actually, I haven't been slacking too much on the WRITING bit, but I haven't stuck to my schedule as tightly as I would have liked, and yet ANOTHER self-mandated deadline came and went.

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I had hunkered down and REALLY got to work on those last five chapters of Perfect Doesn't Need to be Perfect. Yeah, I got distracted playing more Going Under or Animal Crossing or Ori and the Blind Forest, or staying up-to-date with my Tumblr dash for the first time since last March, but I did put in some effort to get the story done before midnight on January 31st.

I got up to chapter 11 of 12, if that helps.

Worst part is, I had chapter 8 done, like, a week ago. However, the publishing format for each of the sites I use are almost completely different, so to tweak the word document for each one to make sure things like italics (of which I have a lot in this story in particular) are properly included takes a LOT of time. Posting each chapter and giving it one last quick review to make sure it's how I want it takes anywhere from 40 to 70 minutes total. I had figured I could use that time to try to crank out the next chapter, and when I was done with chapter 9 I thought I should keep going. I figured, at this rate, I could just do a mass-dump of the final five chapters before midnight on the 31st and call it good.

"Hey, folks, sorry I keep pushing back when I'd be posting/finishing this story. So here's the second half as one huge upload to make up for it. Have fun!"

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It also occurred to me that I wanted to include something in the chapter 6 author's notes that I forgot about at the time, so I'm debating going back and adding it in now so any future readers get the notation....

Anyway!

As of last night, I have chapters 8 through 11 written, edited, and ready to be published. At this point, though, I might as well wait for that final chapter to be done. It feels a bit pathetic to STILL be working on a Christmas story now that it's February (especially since the last time I was still working on a Christmas story post-December I was able to get it finished within January). However, as ChibiSunnie keeps reminding me: "Candlemas is February 2nd, so you're still technically in the Medieval Christmas time and still not late." So, I still have until midnight tonight! (Also, I had been getting notifications all of last year that people were reading Woven Heartstrings, so I guess not too many people restrict their reading of seasonal stories to that season...)

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by Hanasake Pictures Inc

Guess what I'll be doing after this blog post is published!

Especially since we're kinda-sorta snowed in. The roads are clear enough that we can leave if we needed to, but I think we're gonna stay safe and just postpone grocery shopping and laundry for another night....

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Looks like a pajama day to me....

Sooooo, yeah, I know how I'm spending MY day.

One more chapter! I got this! I can do this!

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Weeeeell... maybe TWO more chapters. Technically, Taurus Pixie's story has 12 chapters - one for each Day of Christmas - buuuut, I do have an Adrienette subplot I stumbled into, so I miiiiiight do an epilogue???? I mean, I have the subplot wrapped up the way I have it, but I also kinda-sorta want to put a bow on it still. Ya know? We'll see how I get along today.

Because, frankly, part of my "problem" with this story is that, while Pixie only gave herself less than 24 hours to write, edit, and publish each chapter - posting a new one every day - I'm giving myself ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD to get these chapters where I want them. Which, of course, means I get to spend some time with the environment Pixie set up, and dive a bit further into Ladybug's thoughts on everything. It also means that silly Adrienette subplot was able to creep into my story.

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Cropped by me

So, while Pixie's chapters would average about 2000 words... mine are all closer to 4500 words long.

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I mean, come on. Were you folks expecting anything else with me, though? Now, let's see, averaging about 4500 words per chapter.... at least 5 chapters must be up before midnight tonight... so... uh... yeah, expect a good old 22,000+ word-dump - er, I mean UPLOAD - when you wake up tomorrow (if not before going to bed tonight; I hope it's this one, honestly).

Huh. I mean, it's not the excellent start to 2021 I had hoped for: getting this story done within the actual 12 days of Christmas, as intended. Or even getting the story done before the end of January, as I had aimed. But still, when the story is already over 14,000 words long and I'm going to add probably another 22,000 words on top of that? Especially when the source material was 23,500 words long to begin with?

Not too shabby for someone who spent most of last year going "what are even words?" Right?

Heck, if I'm feeling super ambitious, maybe I'll even try to think of cover art (this story and my Love Square Fluff Week story are the only multi-chapter ML fics I have that don't have cover art). BUT FIRST, I want to FINISH WRITING THE DANG STORY. We'll build from there.

Also also, while Love Square Fluff Week was over darn-near a YEAR ago now, I still have two more chapters/prompts to write to finish that story off. So, guess what my next big task will be. Maybe I can get that done by Valentine's day????

PLUS, I was supposed to help my mom out with something important last year, but then... well... 2020 happened. I've already delayed her enough as it is, so I really need to focus and get started on that project.

It's a new month. Our work schedule is FINALLY  back to a regular rhythm for the first time since March! *knocks on wood* Pending anyone taking vacation time, I'm back to two days off a week, with my longest working streak being my normal once-a-month Wednesday through Monday stretch. And that's because I'll have a Sunday off, then my normal Tuesday as my second day. Which means I'd have to then wait for my normal Tuesday again the following week for my next day off, and my second day off that week will usually be Friday. 

Added bonus, though, due to how the manager is now scheduling my coworker's work weeks (upon request), I tend to get Saturdays off the weeks that it's my coworker's turn to get Sunday off. We've also somehow fallen into a rotation where I get my Sundays off the week after my coworker has her turn, so now I randomly get weekends off once a month???? Neat.

I'm hoping all of this is a positive turning point, and I can truly start making my climb back to normalcy in my life. Get back to having enough mental stamina to Adult properly. Get back into writing regularly. Get back to reading regularly. Get on top of this project for my mom. Really get back into a proper schedule to keep myself even keel. 

We've got this, peeps! We can make it over this mountain. And we'll be stronger for it.

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I guess I'll catch you folks on the other side. In the meantime, stay safe and stay well. Sending you guys supportive hugs.

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Oh, speaking of! Sending some extra love out to Wolfhearted to wish him a happy belated birthday.

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And, with regards to my "need to get back to reading," Cyhyr posted the latest chapter of her story Displaced by Time the other day. If you're into FFXV, or want an emotional, action-packed, time-shenanigans story (trust me, you don't actually need to know anything about FFXV to enjoy this story), then go check it out.

Finally, happy Black History Month. May we put in the effort to learn about Black excellence all year round, not just in February!

Love you guys! Catch you next week!

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Having a Gaming Moment

 Aww, yeah. This year is going swimmingly already.

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I'm not gonna bother sugarcoating it. I missed last week's blog because I was feeling lazy. Simple as that. I was distracting myself with other things and didn't really put in the effort. Sorry about that. I mean, I know just about all of you understand and will tell me "do what you need to for your mental health; don't worry about it." I still feel like I failed somehow though, but I'm gonna pre-emptively thank you all for the kind thoughts.

Now, for a little world building here. Where Hubby and I live is semi-rural. We have a local grocery store and Walmart, and a few specialty shops such as a car dealership, mechanic, one-screen movie theater, gaming store, furniture store, and crafting store. All other things, however, we more-or-less need to drive 30-45min in any given direction to get to. Hubby had saved up enough to finally get a gaming computer that he had been eying up for a while, and we both had the day off, so we made a plan to drive to the city for his computer. Now, it's less than an hour commute. Once upon a time, I used to commute roughly a half-hour to get to and from work. It really shouldn't seem that long of a drive. However, when you're in a semi-rural area, the only really sufficient way to get anywhere is by highway. And the highway landscape up here is ENDLESS MOUNTAINS AND, ironically, SAMENESS. 

See, where I grew up, the highway drove past smaller cities and bigger towns and amusement parks and STUPIDLY HUGE hospitals; there was always something new to see, and since you were driving past so much development it didn't FEEL like a long drive. When I visited family in the next state over, it was more of the same. Constant on ramps and off ramps and developments on either side of the highway. It may be a bit obnoxious when you think about it environmentally, but it also was a great way to feel like you were actually going somewhere at a pretty quick pace. Here, however, when all you have is mostly empty highway with the occasional car here and there, lined with trees and more trees and even more trees, and the same mountain range slowly rolling along each side of the highway, you just feel like you're on the same stretch of road for HOURS even though it's only been about 20min. I used to enjoy driving. Now, I just get so tired when doing so.

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Enough world building. My point is that, whenever Hubby and I leave town for any reason, we try to make as much of a day of it as possible to justify the "long" drive. So, Hubby and I created a list of things we wanted to hit up while also getting him his computer, as well as other things at Best Buy to look at while we were there.

Side note: we tried Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen for the first time that day. Started off with the classic chicken sandwiches, as well as a 6pk of the biscuits, and a 6pk of the beignets. RIP KFC. You've got nothing on Popeye's now that I've tried that! And those biscuits!?

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So, yeah. Hubby and I slept in last Tuesday, instead of my intended "get up as per usual, write up my blog post, and get ready to head out at noon". We did head out at noon, as we had intended, but with no blog post to be had. I knew exactly what I wanted to write too, but I just... didn't want to leave my bed.

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We then spent quite a few hours in the city going through our long list; we always build it up and then go to the cities once we have at least a couple hours' worth of things to do. Drove back into town, and then hit up Walmart for a couple of other things we needed to restock after our quarantine. Next was laundry and grocery shopping. It was still early enough in the evening by the time all of our errands were done; about 7 or so. I just didn't have the energy to bother with the blog at that point. 

I could have posted a late update on my next day off, Friday, but I ended up spending most of that day either cleaning up the apartment or playing video games.

Speaking of, that was kinda-sorta what I wanted to talk about last Tuesday.

So, after paying our monthly bills, Hubby and I noticed we had some spare cash. Yes, we could put it towards our savings for things like a house of our own, but it also doesn't hurt to splurge on yourself every now and again, right? Plus, the whole point of these stimulus checks in the US is to stimulate the economy if the money isn't needed for bills, right? So, Hubby focused on his gaming computer. I turned my eyes to a bunch of digital games Nintendo had in its eShop. Mostly indie games that were ported over. Yeah, Nintendo doesn't need my money, nor does Best Buy, I'm sure, but it's something new to try to help keep our morale up, and I ended up spending less than $100, so... meh.

Well, Sunday, January 17, since I get out of work at 4pm, and I hadn't updated Perfect Doesn't Need to be Perfect in a while, I had every intention of working on that story. Instead, I ended up vaguely watching the NFL playoffs while playing this game finally:

Yup. FINALLY got on the hype train of this game. FINALLY got to experience the joy of being a complete agent of chaos as I screwed around with a bunch of residents in a little (presumably?) UK hamlet. Instead of working on chapter 6 of my story - ya know, "six geese a layin'" - I, kinda ironically, spent Sunday evening running around as a goose.

I had so much fun when I got to the back gardens (back yards in US speak) section of the game. Especially because I got to make myself all pretty with a ribbon around my neck.

It's actually a red ribbon in this part of the game, but, down by the first level with the gardener,
you can find a blue ribbon and carry it to the artist's back yard to get the blue bow instead.

Look at how elegant I look! Reminds me of my childhood. My mom had our little house completely decked out in Country Goose. We had white geese with blue bows like this EVERYWHERE: the plates, the wallpaper, random decorative knickknacks, and we had a goose cookie jar.

I worked SOOOOO hard to keep that ribbon on. Whenever I would get caught, and the ribbon was ripped off, I would get it put back on before trying to finish my tasks. Probably kept me about 5x longer to finish this level because I refused to do anything without my blue ribbon on.

Only for it to be programmed into the game that I'd always loose the ribbon my first play-through as I progressed to the next level!

Not cool, game!

Don't worry, I figured out how to get the ribbon back on before I finished the game. 

Not even a week later, and I tore through the full To Do list for the game. All I have left is the "speed-run" to-do list. That's on hold though, because I have a couple other games I had tried out.

Like I said, I saw I had some spare cash, and Nintendo was having one of its many MANY sales on its digital content. So I scooped up a handful of games to try out.

While not a canonical Legend of Zelda game. I knew I had to try out Cadence of Hyrule. Much like how Hyrule Warriors is a crossover between Dynasty Warriors and Legend of Zelda, Cadence of Hyrule is a crossover between LoZ and Crypt of the NecroDancer. It is a Roguelike rhythm action game in a style probably resembling A Link to the Past the most. It also has a very original LoZ feel, but the fact that there is some linear gameplay (you have to defeat A before you can proceed to B) is why it doesn't COMPLETELY match the open gameplay of the original game.

Anyway, I wasn't sure if I'd like this game for a couple of reasons. 

1. I've heard mixed reviews, but I also know how harsh LoZ "fanboys" are. I was still afraid this would be about par with Tri Force Heroes or Four Swords/Four Swords Adventures; not a bad game, but super gimmicky, not much by way of story, and not much replay value.
2. I am not the best at rhythm games. One of the reasons I never did well when I tried out band in middle school. I just can't keep count, I guess? Or I'll get slightly off-count and stay on count with that; never truly finding the proper beat? I'm usually off-count just EEEEEEEVER so slightly in these types of games; too soon or juuuust barely too late. I can confirm this is still very much the case.
3. It's a roguelike game. I already get irritated when I can't figure out how to play through a game without dying a lot. If I can't figure out a LoZ boss after one or two deaths, I get cranky: "I've played video games pretty much my whole life, why do I still suck so hard at them!?" So giving me a game like Dark Souls or Cuphead where the play is notoriously difficult? I'd rage-quit FAST. The last time I played anything remotely close to a roguelike game was back with old-school Nintendo or arcade games where there was no save file. You did the full-run with either just your one life or with the lives you built up, or you start from scratch. Even Sega Genesis games where, aside from health and lives, nothing transferred over from one level to the next. I still remember how proud I was when I FINALLY beat the Escape from the Cave of Wonders level in Aladdin. All-in-all, I've been afraid to try out any roguelike games even with this background in these old-school systems.

Luckily, I saw Outside Xtra stream Spelunky 2 a few months back, and I saw how irritating, and yet fun(?) a roguelike game could be. I also saw how rewarding FINALLY getting to the end of a 3-or-4-level run could be, and how getting to that end point DOES advance the game so it gets a liiiiiiittle easier to do those early runs fully as you progress. Plus, if you KNOW that you're going to die a lot, and it's not necessarily because you're a "bad gamer" it could just be a poor random generated dungeon or loot drop, it doesn't make you feel so inadequate??? 

Then, over on OutsideXbox, they uploaded a video of Mike playing a demo of the game Going Under. Another roguelike game where it's a very tongue-in-cheek corporate dungeon crawler. It was sponsored content. It did its job. Hubby found the video intriguing enough, and the game was on eShop sale, so he picked it up. I watched him play a few levels and was interested as well, especially when I saw that even he would die easily if the dungeon was poorly generated - via bad loot or the store was at the start of the run when your character doesn't have money, etc.

I've also seen SO. MUCH. HYPE. for the game Hades. Plus, I used to play the developer's other game Bastion back when they had a free demo on Google Chrome, so I knew I really liked their style. This made me really REALLY want to try out this game, but it was another roguelike. I needed to see if I could even handle this gaming sub-genre.

So, with the goal to a) add another LoZ-themed game to my repertoire, b) try out Going Under myself, and c) see if I can handle roguelike games enough to warrant buying Hades, I picked up the Cadence of Hyrule demo. Yay for demos! It's actually a pretty decent size, especially since I do indeed suck at both roguelike games and rhythm games. It was irritating at first, and I was almost glad I didn't drop the dough to buy the full game, but after sleeping on my irritation and going back to the game the next day with new determination, I actually got pretty far. Haven't finished the demo yet, but I at least got to the final dungeon. PROGRESS!

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With Cadence of Hyrule, I learned that the Hades tagline of "One more time" is indeed the cry of roguelike gamers. I just got so addicted to "ooh! I got so close that time! Okay. Once more!"

I got even MORE addicted to it when I bought and played Going Under myself. Mostly because it's more rogue-lite, I think? Every dungeon dive, even if you fail miserably, advances the game a little. The NPCs will have new dialogue after every run. The skills you equip will slowly improve with each run. You may fail at getting to the dungeon boss, let alone defeating him, but you may finish an NPC's side-quest, which advances your relationship with them, and THAT could give you the edge you need to finish the dungeon.

Plus, this game is just SUUUUUCH a great social commentary on toxic capitalism, you WANT to do "one more run" just to see what new dialogue you get.

I mean....

Who hasn't lived this life?

This. This hits hard.

Preachin' to the choir, indeed.

Contract workers beware.

I'm sure everyone has experienced at least one boss like this, if not EVERY boss.

Ah, the joys of having your work be valued by your employer... Oh, wait.

Yeeeeaaaaaah, this game gets REAL real at points. That's for sure. 

So, the main world-build of this game is that you have this city that pretty much sprang up around this one company Cubicle. Cubicle is (almost?) entirely automated, and loves to back up-and-coming start-up companies (think the show Shark Tank). The problem is, you quickly find out that the start-up companies that Cubicle backs have a huge spike in success before completely tanking it; vanishing without a trace. You also realize that the dungeons you are diving through to help keep the monsters in the basement "under control" are the remains of these start-ups. And guess what, you're now an unpaid intern at yet ANOTHER start-up that Cubicle just backed: F'zzle Soda. There's shady things clearly afoot at Cublicle that you slowly piece together with the dialogue you get after each dive.

Cubicle is also clearly a thinly-vailed jab at Amazon.

Okay, maybe it's not even thinly-vailed.... Also, yes, that is a slide from the 2nd floor office down to the main floor of the building (the purple object kind of upper middle of the picture), as well as a water feature just off to the upper left of the picture. I'm assuming those are in reference to the "fun work environment" Amazon was/is known for.

VEEEERY tongue-in-cheek - I didn't even point out the failed start-ups that you dungeon crawl through - and I adore this game. It also adds to my new-found love of roguelike/rogue-lite games. So, next time I have some spare funds again, I'm scooping up Hades. (Also, a former coworker of mine has been majorly championing the game The Binding of Isaac, so that's another for my list.)

Okay, so, I've been spending the past week playing roguelike games and being a jerky goose instead of updating this blog, or working on my story? Well, I've also been absorbing some seriously emotional gaming content by way of Ori and the Blind Forest. Once again, I have Outside Xtra to blame for this. Way back in May, Ellen talked about how much she loved the Ori sequel Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Again, because of such games as Cuphead, I had seen a trend of indie games purposefully being harder games to give a sort of throwback to old-school arcade and 1st generation consoles. So, even though I loved the design of Ori and the Blind Forest, I was afraid to actually buy it. But after hearing Ellen talk about how moving the story was for Will of the Wisps I knew I had to give it a whirl. Especially when I saw the game in the Nintendo eShop. Thankfully, the original - Blind Forest - was also in the eShop, and had a demo option. YAY AGAIN FOR DEMOS. 

Seriously, game demos have convinced me to buy SOOOO many games over the past year or so. If you have a game; have a free demo or "showcase" so potential players can see if they even like the gameplay. You'll probably catch a lot more players that way, because people like me, who would rather shy away from a popular game because we're not sure we'll enjoy it enough to justify the money spent, are soooooo much more likely to go "okay, no. I'm hooked. Let's buy this thing." Why most games don't have the first level as a demo is beyond me. It's not like you'd need to do extra programming....

Anyway, as I said in that last paragraph, I was HOOKED. Right in the opening of Ori and the Blind Forest you get hit with The Feels almost on par with the opening of the Pixar movie Up. I have since bought the full game. I also could have continued where I left off in the demo - another fun feature that most demos have if they're the first level of the game - but I deleted the file and started completely fresh, just to experience that opening again. I haven't gotten further than the first level thus far, but I've also been juggling between a half-dozen games.

Because we can't forget that I'm still faithfully playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons daily, as well as slowly progressing through Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. 

Dear lord. I haven't played video games this frequently since I was in, like, middle school or high school or something!

Sooooo, yeah. I've been bouncing between AC:NH, Age of Calamity, Cadence of Hyrule, Going Under, Untitled Goose Game, and Ori. I've also been trying to keep up with my French lessons over on Duolingo daily, and splice in some Japanese refreshers to not forget the basics I learned in 2019.

Oh, and also work... I've been working too....

I know, especially since I promised myself I'd have this Christmas-themed story done before February, that I REALLY should be focusing on that. But it's been sooooooooo long since I've really been able to just enjoy video games? Mostly because, no offense to my husband, but HE'S usually playing video games, and we only had the one TV. So if HE'S playing, I can't be. But with the Switch? I can play whenever, even if he's already on the TV playing something or watching something. We also have the 2nd TV in the bedroom now with my Switch dock, so I could go play on a TV myself if I really wanted to. I'm having SUUUUCH a gamer moment, and, sadly, it's kind of shoved the writing to the side for a minute.

This is why I don't get people who are/were bored during quarantine/lockdown or the people who work part-time jobs during retirement, not because they need the money, but because they're bored at home. I mean, if that's you, cool. Everyone is wired differently. But I just don't understand it. I have about a dozen different hobbies that I can cycle through at any given time, and each hobby can fill a day by itself. Add in normal Adulting chores, and I don't think I could ever be bored again.

I mean, I DO still get bored on occasion, but that's more a stress thing where I can't really focus on anything and find joy in what I'm doing. Once I'm out of that funk? No boredom. 

Now after AAAALLLLLL of that massive stuff said, I DID manage to update two more chapters on PDNTBP. (I know, burying the lead a bit here.)

Last Monday, a day later than intended, I did indeed post chapters 6 and 7 of my story. I had every intension last week to comment about the story and Untitled Goose Game and call it a day.

Anyway, if you want to know what chaos happens to poor Chat Noir and Ladybug with "six geese a layin'" and "seven swans a swimmin'" you can check out my latest chapters.

"Chapter 6"

On FanFiction       On ArchiveOfOurOwn       On DeviantArt       On Tumblr

"Chapter 7"

On FanFiction       On ArchiveOfOurOwn       On DeviantArt       On Tumblr

I only have a week to go before my deadline. I still need to finish editing down the MASSIVE chapter 8 for this story. I also have chapters 9 through 12 to write! I need to get my butt in gear!

So, looks like my gaming moment is on pause as I try to pick up the pace with writing again. Of course, I'm also going to make sure that "picking up the pace" in my writing doesn't lessen the quality. It's a fun balance.

We'll see how this goes. I have a random Saturday off as well, so, worse comes to worst, I guess I'm spending Saturday finishing my story. Keep a look out for those final 5 chapters! 

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2021 Starts Off With A Bang

Well then. Welcome to 2021, I guess. Seems 2020 decided to leave a few parting gifts before heading out the door.

How is everyone? This year has been a lot already. Namely, the insurrection in the US as Congress attempted to confirm the votes (yet again) that Biden did indeed win the election and is the next president. It's weird to both be shocked and yet saw it coming a mile away. Like, I was expecting that riot, but I also didn't think it would actually happen???? Especially to the extreme that they were able to manage.

January 20th won't come soon enough, but at the same time, I fear for presidential assassination attempts.

It's gonna be a rough year.

Even before all of that happy goodness, however, my husband and I had another lovely parting gift from 2020: COVID.

We're both fine, and we're allowed to leave quarantine on the 14th, but it certainly was not a fun go. Trying to track down testing in and of itself was a pain, although, the actual test wasn't bad at all. As the one nurse put it "we don't pick your brain anymore; just your nose" and it's a swab just inside the nostril, exactly like they're picking at it. Anyway, the other big issue was that Hubby had COVID, but I came back negative. Which means he had to isolate from me to try to keep me from catching it. Since only the two of us live in this apartment, and I had to quarantine, that meant I was effectively isolating as well; I just had more house to do it in. Fun.

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Well, sadly, it all was for naught. Either I had already caught COVID from Hubby and got a false negative because it was too soon into the incubation, or I caught it soon after because we share a bathroom and the man needs to eat, so we couldn't be 100% isolated from each other 100% of the time.

But, hey, I'm sure the week of sleeping on a loveseat and not being able to hug my husband was totally worth it...

I actually had symptoms about 4 days after Hubby, but didn't get the new test results until yesterday. Whoo! So... yeah, that's more-or-less how we've been spending our first couple of weeks of 2021.

The sad thing is, I was mildly excited about quarantine. I could use the time to start 2021 off right. I'd clean down the apartment. I'd catch up on more fanfics on my To Read list. I'd get my own writing done! Buuut then I was only getting about 2hrs of sleep each night on the loveseat. And my right ear has been clogged since the 3rd, so I've been hearing the world as if I'm under water for over a week. Plus the ear clog has been throwing off my balance so I've been wobbly and light headed and can't really stand for more than 15min at a time. Also, the coughing fits gave me mild headaches. So.... standing for long enough to clean wasn't really gonna work, which means the apartment is more-or-less "don't get worse" with the cleaning than the "improve the clutter" that I was going for. And getting my brain to function long enough to have energy to create or even imagine has been rough. There goes reading. I have attempted the writing still though.

In fact, the first few days of quarantine, before my symptoms arose and I was just in rest mode while fighting this thing, I was a writing machine! I went from barely writing anything in 2020 to writing nearly 20,000 words in less than a week!

Remember last time, when I told you guys that I had a story in mind thanks to Taurus Pixie? Well, as per usual, I wanted to have the story written before I started posting. That way I could edit earlier chapters if needed so later ones would make sense. Also, that way I could have a faster upload schedule, because then all I'd have to do is edit and publish. It might still take me a day or two between uploads, but it's way faster than if I'm waiting to have the energy to write the chapter first.

So I was spending pretty much my entire isolation - stopping only to throw on a mask whenever Hubby needed the bathroom, or when we needed food - writing away, uninterrupted, for three days or so. I got pretty far into the story too. I was determined to have it done by the 4th so I could just publish the whole thing by the 5th. I wanted that for multiple reasons.

First and foremost, because the story I was working on was Christmas themed, and I wanted to be able to publish it during the Christmas season. Secondly, the story is about the 12 days of Christmas, so it seemed fitting to publish DURING the 12 days of Christmas. (Yes, the 12 days of Christmas START on Christmas day; not end on it). Finally, I wanted the story published so I had links to post here in my blog.

Clearly, none of that happened.

I got as far as chapter 8 in a 12-chapter story, and then I had to wave the white flag. If I was going to publish and promote in my blog, I had to give up getting the whole thing done first and just publish what I had. Publishing even the first chapter would be good enough. So I stopped writing and switched to editing.

Always off to a great start, I didn't even BEGIN editing until after noon last Tuesday. Largely because sleeping on a tiny loveseat the past couple of weeks had really thrown my sleep schedule out of whack, and I didn't even wake up until about noon! On top of the late start, I was a bit dazed from my lack of sleep and my head spinning due to coughing and the inner ear problem, so the actual editing took longer than expected.

Then came the fight with four different websites in trying to format my story. I keep forgetting how much "fun" that part is, as well as how time consuming. Between Tumblr, FFN, AO3, and DA, my story wasn't uploaded until, like, 4am or something! Okay, fine. I'll just publish my blog post a day late. No big deal.

And then there was the attack on the Capital building.

Yeah, I did not have the heart to even think about this blog, let alone write a post, while dealing with the mental and emotional strain of watching that on the news all day.

So, here we are, a week later, with only 5 out of 12 chapters published of my Christmas story, and still needing to write chapters 9 thru 12. But something WAS written! Something WAS published! So now my goal is "have it done and published before February!" It worked for Woven Heartstrings. So I guess it can work here too.

This is all well and good, but what even IS this new story of mine?

Well, as I mentioned in previous posts, you can thank Pixie for unwittingly lending me her muse, because I 100% swiped her idea. As I was reading through Twelve Days of Chatmas I kept wondering how Ladybug was handling all the chaos that was surrounding her and Chat Noir. Pixie left enough breadcrumbs to guess what Ladybug was thinking, but I kept wanting to SEE it officially. So, I decided to write the story I wanted to read.

As a belated Christmas gift to Pixie - because, boy howdy does this poor woman deserve a good pick-me-up after the year she's had - as well as a thank you for sparking any sort of writing from me, I dedicated my latest story to her. My story was mostly written by her anyway; I'm just coming at it from a new perspective. 

Yes. I have fallen so far off the creative horse that I'm now writing fanfiction of fanfiction. (And Hubby was the one who came up with the story title for me). Maybe one day I'll have an original idea of my own. In the meantime, I'm just happy to be writing again.

Anyway, for any who are interested, you can check out my story in my usual four places.

"Perfect Doesn't Need to be Perfect"

On FanFiction      On ArchiveOfOurOwn      On DeviantArt      On Tumblr

**Contains Spoilers for Taurus Pixie’s story Twelve Days of Chatmas**

Summary: Chat Noir has run into a long streak of poor luck, all in an attempt to give Ladybug the perfect Christmas gift. Little does he know, his first try was already perfect in Ladybug’s eyes. Now it’s her turn to try to navigate around Chat Noir’s failed attempts in her own pursuit to find something equally fantastic for him.
**A Switched-POV Unofficial Companion Story to Twelve Days of Chatmas by Taurus Pixie**

Rating: General Audience

Status: 5 chapters published out of 12; ongoing

**For reals, if you haven’t read Twelve Days of Chatmas yet, read that first so my story doesn’t spoil anything for you. It’s cool. This story will still be here when you get back. ;) **

Now, since the story has been up for a week, I do have some stats on it already. It's had quite the warm reception, which really helps this nervous heart that feared I would come back rusty after nearly a year of not writing anything. A lot of the comments are Pixie gushing, so I won't post those here. You pretty much know her reviews by now, and you can go read them yourself over on FFN. 

Pixie, just know how much I appreciate you, and your reviews always make me smile. I'm glad you are enjoying your gift, my friend!

As for my other stats?

FFN: 408 views, 4 faves, 9 followers, and 6 reviews
AO3: 76 views, 9 kudos, 3 bookmarks, and 6 comments
DA: 2136 views!, 3 faves, but no comments

Total Results: 2620 views, 16 faves, 12 followers, and 12 reviews

Tumblr Notes: 25 notes; 16 likes, 8 reblogs, and a comment from Pixie

Reviews:
  1. This seems like a very sweet story, I'm excited to read more escapades. ~ Vexel
  2. Hi! Just discovered this fanfic and wanted to let you know I followed and your writing is very good quality. I love love love the Ladynoir. Chat Noir is absolutely precious and deserves to know so :) Keep it up! Can’t wait for more updates. ~ countesscoloratura888
  3. A semi-long review by ritorudeito that I'll share below
  4. Aww, poor Chat! Interesting story! ~ pkk
  5. Nice writing! ~ pkk
  6. Poor Chat! All those chickens come with feathers! ~ pkk
  7. Poor Chat is really striking out with his presents! This is such a cute story! It doesn’t matter that it’s going past Christmas. It’s still very enjoyable to read. 🥰 ~ pkk
  8. This was great! I can just feel Marinette’s anguish. Really nice job of writing! ~ pkk
  9. ooooh OUCH...[COMMENT REDACTED DUE TO STORY SPOILERS] ~ BFG_blueapple303

How the heckens did DEVIANT ART get the most views for this story!? And the individual chapter views are all over the place too! Check this out: 

• Chapter 1 surprised me right out the gate with 978 views!?
• Chapter 2 had a much more modest 219 views
• Chapter 3 has an animal abuse content warning and drops to 102 views
• Chapter 4 is back up to 265 views
• Chapter 5 then balloons to 572 views!

Meanwhile, AO3 has only 76 hits! HOW!? When did DA become my big readership base!? If you're here from DA, let me know in the comments. I love you all and I'm amazed you are finding my writing on DA of all places, but this is exactly why I keep posting there!

I'd also like to note that the Tumblr account AO3 Feed - LadyNoir also shared my story (there's an algorithm in place that auto promotes stories published online with the Lovesquare tags). Their share did get 4 likes, and since the post is simply a promotion of my AO3 link, I'm guessing at least 4 of those AO3 hits were probably because of this blog. So, thank you, to AO3 Feed - LadyNoir.

Now, for that semi-long review from ritorudeito. It is so sweet, and I'm so impressed, because English clearly isn't their native language, and yet they are still giving my story a try. That always amazes me!

  ritorudeito: Sorry because I didn't have chance to leave you a review before but I follow this story since the first chapters. I were a biggest fan of the original story. Indeed I translated it to Spanish to share with more readers here in fanfiction! (Author gives me chance by the way). I always dreamed with more about this story! And a Ladybug's version is more than perfect. The next days are my favorite! [REST OF REVIEW REDACTED DUE TO STORY SPOILERS]

How sweet is that!? This person loved Pixie's story so much they got her permission to translate it into Spanish in order to make it easier for others to read her story, and now this person is back to read my story simply because it retells Pixie's? I'm dumbfounded by who finds my stories, I truly am. It's such a humbling experience to get reviews like these. 

And a huge thank you to pkk, whoever you are, for the consistent reviews left on my AO3 stories. It's always such a joy to see repeat readers like that.

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Anyway, I should probably get back to editing the next couple of chapters that need to go up, either that, or write those final three.

Here's hoping 2021 is treating you kinder, and that you enjoy this little bit of Christmas cheer seeping a bit further into the month than expected. 

With a little bit of luck and determination, I'll try to see you fine folks again next week.

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