04-16-2022

I really want to like Spring, I really do, but every time I go outside there's a fresh menacing cloud of green-yellow pollen just waiting for me. I can't really escape it when I'm inside, either. Every morning I wake up with glossy goopy eyelids and I can't tell if its leftover dry-eyes ointment, or allergy leakage. It's very unpleasant.

Last weekend, I went thrifting for the first time in a while. I decided to check out two spots I hadn't been to before. They were right next to each other, anyway. I saw several things I liked at the first one, but everything was way too big. I'm not even particularly small, I just think it would be nice to not have to modify all of my clothes, so I didn't leave with anything. The second one mostly stocked vintage, so some of it was kind of pricey. But I could find things my size. There were a lot of cute sweaters, but I didn't want to wait another 6 months to wear them, so I ended up leaving with a cardigan that's still a little too thick, but I told myself I can wear it indoors so it's ok. Decent pastel cardigans that aren't wool are hard to come by!!! I regret not leaving with this awful unicorn applique sweater, too. I'll have to go back soon and see if it's still there.

Another thing I regret is agreeing to do some light freelancing for a friend who shot a music video and needed motion graphics for it, since I guess she's doing that now. She sent me some of her songs a while ago but I didn't know I'd get roped into it. Good for her for following her dreams, but I can't say I'm a fan. But she was pretty straightforward about what she needed and didn't ask for a friends and family discount either, and it really took me no time to do it. It should have been fine! We were supposed to meet up just for coffee and to discuss it more, but she had to cancel because I guess she indirectly got caught up in some legal trouble. I didn't ask for the details because we're really not close at all and I think I'm better off not knowing. But I hope she's doing well, and not just because I would like to be paid. But I do really want to spoil my dolls while the yen to US dollar exchange rate is good!

Speaking of dolls, the following message is for lovers of Volks Super Dollfie ONLY, if you are not a Volks Super Dollfie lover close your browser immediately. Please join the SD webring! I promise it's very fun and hat worked very hard on it!

04-03-2022

I've been pretty busy these days. I can't do these month-long social issue celebration/awareness things anymore. There's too many, and I understand that there's only twelve months that everyone has to share, but I'm tired. Let's just do a week or a day instead. But what's so disappointing is that it seems like April Fool's Day is terribly under celebrated! Why!

Anyway, I've been working on finishing my half-finished projects. I removed the 80's bubble sleeves from one of my Pink House dresses and turned them into a dress for Chouquette! I'm not terribly satisfied with it, but it's good enough! I might add some bows or embroidery or something. And I think she could use a hat. I also got a chance to redo her last faceup that I ruined. I wanted to try something animetic and I'm actually really happy with it. Her blush is heart-shaped. But if I keep doing this to myself then the photos on my doll page will never be up-to-date!!

Me and my friends are finally getting refunds for the Mitski tickets! They say you'll get your money back if they screw up, but only if you're willing to sing and dance in their customer service circus. When we first tried to contact SeatGeek, their response was something like "I don't understand? Your tickets were delivered?? Did you check your spam box, idiot???" I swear it's run by monkeys and I refuse to deal with them ever again.

03-14-2022

Daylights Savings Time has got to stop. You can't just add and remove hours from the day like this. It's terribly disorienting, and is it really even serving any purposes anymore?! Better yet let's all agree to go by UTC instead. Time zones are an outdated concept.

I spent last weekend doing faceups. Maple's is a little more... red than I intended for it to be. I think I should have reassessed my plan so I guess I'll redo it at some point. Chouquette got a new one too while I was at it, just something I wanted to try. I also learned that varnish is in fact pretty permanent and if you try to clean it up, it will also pull up all of the layers of sealant underneath, partially destroying your hard work. Something always goes wrong right at the end with Chouqette Q~Q I haven't mastered thin and beautiful tapering brush strokes yet, but all I can do is keep trying. While it's always impressive when faceup artists manage to completely transform the sculpt and create something very realistic, I really admire the skill of those who can consistently create elegant faceups with more subtle expression. It's not even that I want to do commissions or anything, but ever since I got into dolls, it's a skill that I thought would be nice to have. I didn't really try at it until just a couple of years ago, but the thing about art is that you can really only get better at it over time as long as you make a consistent effort to critique and refine your skills, so I think I can get there someday.

I mean unless I lose my hands and/or eyes in a horrific accident. That's always a possibility. Anyway, my White Day gift form Volks arrived and it's just very cute.

03-08-2022

Girl's High School Mystery Class concluded recently and while it was shorter (I think?) than the first season, it was a lot better. It ended forever ago but I really wish Busted! was done with the same level of competency. It had so much potential! Byungjae made a cameo in both Busted! and this season of GHSMC. There's not as much opportunity for improv in The Great Escape but overall he's funny in just about everything he's in, except stand up, so what I'm trying to say is I wish he had more of a role in GHSMC. So anyway since that's over, I've been enjoying Murderville a lot. It's another comedic half-scripted murder mystery show, which I guess is my favorite genre. It's really funny, I highly recommend it.

Waaay back in November, Volks held a special event for FCS owners as part of the 20th anniversary celebration, and they're finally sending out the presents! The one that everyone gets is an SD-sized FCS catalog and order form. I'm really looking forward to it. I just really love doll-sized versions of human-sized things for those same dolls. I hope one day we can see a mini doll box with mini cushions. Or mini chalk pastels and mini paints and a mini brush and a mini can of MSC.

Also, I started playing my fluffy life by middlepot! It's a very cute and simple game, very good for downtime at work where there's just not quite enough time to do anything else. I like the virtual scrapbook a lot.

03-06-2022

For some reason, a vague memory of Dance x Mixer resurfaced recently. I torrented it about 10 years ago and haven't thought about it much since then. It was a short-lived idol(?) maker(?) software(?) thing, but not only was my memory of it surprisingly accurate, the website is miraculously still up. Not sure who's paying the bill. I wonder if Dance x Mixer was ahead of its time, I only knew about it from the weird intersection of Idolm@ster and Vocaloid. But it would be great for planning out T*kt%k dances. And it's totally #animecore. Anyway I spent about 2 minutes playing around with it again before realizing I had much better things to do.

For one, I took my sewing machine in to be serviced, finally. I just got up and did it. It wasn't that hard, just a bit of a drive to the nearest center. I don't know why when something needs to be fixed I just can't be bothered to deal with it. That mentality doesn't work for most things. Well, once I recollect it I'll really have to finish up the projects I've left half-finished because... I don't want to hand sew anymore.

The weather is warming up so I need to hurry up and paint Maple (Midnight Greta) and her hands, before it's too humid. I'm going in with a proper plan this time. I've been looking at the work of a lot of faceup artists lately, and I think I've found a solid solution for eyebrows that I'd like to try. I hope I don't like it too much because then everyone gets a repaint. While I'm thinking about dolls, I can't get over Maximilian and Regelus. I mean, all of Volk's recent announcements have been crazy (well except for the Frozen Girls, they became a little disappointing). But these boys?!?! I already prefer smaller dolls but getting Haupia really made me reconsider. I suppose at the end of the day Mother SD will be the final decision maker so we'll see how I feel next month but I am going insane.