Beast Wars and Beast Machines

Farmers market trip was an overall success. It did rain and I did forget to bring an umbrella but it was never worse than a drizzle. I was more worried about the niblings than myself but no issues to speak of. My sister's littlest refused to keep the canopy of his stroller up and his siblings didn't seem to care at all.

Still no peppers but we got there early enough that we had a good pick of the other produce I was looking for. Got peaches, plums, tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, lettuce, green onion and a handful of basil. I wanted cucumbers, too, but it was like they disappeared once I went back looking for them. Pretty sure what actually happened was that the couple of booths offering them were among the more popular and I overlooked them past the crowds that had gathered by then. I also saw two or three people with these big buckets of strawberries that I could not find anywhere and Idk what was up with that, lol. Ah, well, I can try again another week.

We had lunch and then I got dropped off at home. I was inexplicably exhausted-- granted, I got up earlier than usual-- and took what I wanted to be a short nap and ended up being a long nap. Go figure. After that, I got on to my reorganizing and... the results are mixed.

My focus today was my closet, since I'm eyeing some stuff on the shelves to be moved in there, and it took less time than I'd have expected, granted I hit a roadblock before I could be what I considered finished. It doesn't really look at a glance like I did as much as it feels like I did but the difference in how things are situated now feels significant. I put aside a lot of stuff for Goodwill, a few items for the local little free library and got some forgotten recycling out of my way. That'll be dealt with this coming week. I have more "to-sell" stuff taking up space than I remembered and I'm gonna sleep on what to do about that. Most of that is Transformers-related and I was planning to try to unload it at TFcon in October but, well, that's October. It's in my way now. I think I'll go ahead and list the bigger ticket items on eBay, take whatever doesn't sell there to TFcon, then just donate whatever doesn't sell there.

So! Tomorrow's goals are cleaning up my shelves and listing a few things on eBay. Not too many to start with. I tend to get it into my head that I have to list everything or nothing and, uh. As you may have guessed, I tend to pick nothing. I'd rather have something listed than nothing. I'll do some routine tidying up and dusting as I go. I should also fix up my yarn chest, tbh; I've barely crocheted at all this year and it's still gotten so chaotic that it makes me never want to crochet again, lol.

I want so badly for Trump and Musk to destroy each other. Like, I'm not ignorant of the damage they could do but they're already doing damage, you feel me? I'm also aware that there's a non-zero chance of this whole feud being a charade BUT-- and, yes, I know that none of us actually know these people-- I simply cannot wrap my head around the idea of either of their egos suffering this humiliation. Idk. It's a cold satisfaction I'm feeling but it's still satisfaction.

So help me, though, if the Dems don't shut their collective traps about opening the door for Musk... I am so tired of being roped into whatever weird humiliation kink these fools are indulging.

So, it turns out that pre-orders placed at different times on the site I used-- Bookshop.org, if I didn't mention-- do not ship together and there's no mechanism to combine them. Very odd, imo, but such is life. The rep I spoke to was kind enough to cancel both orders and initiate refunds, which I should have within a week. Once they hit, I'll re-order both books in the same order. In the meantime, I'll look around just in case any other pre-orders I'm interested in just happen to be releasing on that same day. Don't want a repeat of this situation!

I'm already about halfway through reading my first book of the month and I plan to read a little more before bed. I'm not too terribly behind on my goal for the year and I feel pretty good about being able to catch up this month. I have four books I for sure want to read off my shelves and then I'll try to tackle one or two of the new ones I mentioned, since those are all under three hundred pages and a few are even under two hundred. I was disappointed to realize one of them is the third book in a trilogy but I'll worry about that later.

I truly, desperately need people to stop treating actors as the characters they play, especially when it comes to real life tragedies.

( tw: hate crime )

I forgot I had plans with my sister and the kids today, lol. I thought it was next weekend. Ah, well.

Probably obvious that I didn't get my custom done but it's actually more because my attempts to fix the warped parts fell through. Didn't really accomplish anything but at least I didn't really make it worse either. Part of me feels like I could've done it if I had more knowledge/experience but I'm actually probably going about it the wrong way and don't have the right tools on hand. Looking over everything again now that I've not touched it in a hot minute, I think I can and should just fill in the gap areas with epoxy sculpt and paint over them. There are a couple issues I can use the heat from a hair drier to fix too. Disappointed but at least I'm learning!

Didn't get to the organizing I hoped to do but that was always a maybe for today anyhow. I've blocked out what I want to do tomorrow. Yes, I'm skipping finishing the custom first. The sculpting I need to do is too precise to do quickly and I don't want to spend all day on it. I'll just move my supplies out of the way to deal with later.

On a happier note, I am just about to finish that book I'm reading! And then I'll be keeping my fingers crossed re: picking up the pace on reading next month.

So, amongst my niece's birthday wishes is a new Monster High doll. Specifically, she wants a Draculaura. Okay, cool, Draculaura is apparently the main character of G3, plenty to choose from. And, hey, they even put out a birthday-themed line. I just got her sister some birthday-themed Barbies back in February, this'll be a perfect follow-up--

WHY AM I SEEING THIS THING FOR $40+ ALL OVER THE DANG INTERNET??

This is a frikkin playline doll we're talking about, one that only came out, like. I wanna say a month ago? She was twenty-five dollars on release. I can see that she's still listed for that price on Amazon but I don't want to use Amazon. I did see her for thirty at one site but that's before shipping. This is ridiculous. Niece's birthday isn't until July, so I have time to try to find this thing in stores, but I might have to go with a different doll. Which, y'know, really not at all a big deal in the grand scheme of things but why is this even an issue?

Love Bullet is getting an English release! Have I talked about Love Bullet here? I feel like I have but just in case: Love Bullet is a fantastical action yuri manga. The premise is that those who have died without falling in love are given a second chance by the goddess of love; they become cupids, earning karma by making successful love matches between humans while being unable to fall in love themselves. Those who earn enough karma are returned to life, though we aren't far enough in yet to know the logistics of this process. Our main character, Koharu, is a new cupid and we follow her antics as well as those of some other cupids she meets and who help her on her journey to earn karma.

This manga was on the chopping block due to low sales-- nothing to do with the lack of promotion, I'm sure-- but was saved by the concerted efforts of its fans. Of particular note was that overseas fans bought it in droves despite most not being able to read it. (Yes, I was one of those fans.) Its future is still tenuous, as far as I understand, but the first Japanese volume selling out repeatedly certainly gave it a boost. Fans have been begging for official translations ever since and Yen Press is finally answering the call!

Pre-orders for the English release just went up and the only reason I've not pre-ordered as of this post is that it isn't available from my preferred online retailer-- yet? I'm hoping it's just not available yet, hence not ordering it from somewhere else.

I checked and the site, bookshop.org, does carry manga from the same publisher. And pre-orders for the first English language volume of another yuri manga that's having a staring contest with cancellation, A Curtain Call for You, also opened recently and I found that listing on the same site immediately. Different publisher, granted, but still. I don't think I saw the announcement for that one as quickly as I did for Love Bullet, so they may just be a little delayed in getting these titles listed. The books have the same release date, so I'd really like to get them from the same retailer. And I like Bookshop because it partners with and supports small brick and mortar stores. I'm going to give it until the weekend, then I'll try emailing them if it still isn't listed.

"Oh, yeah, I'll finish the living room and maybe even have time for--"

Why do you guys keep letting me embarrass myself like this, lol.

Honestly, it didn't go too terribly badly today, aside from some moments when I kept getting overwhelmed or distracted by small details that I really did not mean to be focusing on. Just goes to show how truly awful I am at estimating how long something will take, I guess. Didn't really end up taking breaks, either, except for food and a quick run to the store. At least the floors look good and so do the surfaces... Well, the surfaces look good in theory. I've got stuff piled either because I needed it off the floor or I couldn't do anything with it until the other stuff made its way back to the floor. I could do that now that I'm done with the floors and furniture has been putting back where it goes* but it's very late and I'm very tired, so it's gonna wait until tomorrow.

As for tomorrow... I think I'm gonna just pick up, change the bedding and maybe dust in my room. A full overhaul like I was planning would've needed to be worked on throughout the whole weekend, I think. It's disappointing but I'd rather not disappoint myself by setting a clearly unreasonable task in my way. I'll also finish off what's left of the living room, of course-- it'll be a little easier since sorting through some of the stuff will be something my mom and I do together-- wipe down the walls for good measure and of course take care of the bathrooms. In hindsight, I probably should've done those first to get them out of the way rather than waiting because they wouldn't take as long. Whatever. What matters is that they'll be done.

This weekend obviously hasn't gone as I hoped but at least I can look forward to a good finish :)

*Some of the furniture is not where it should be but I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what's wrong with it...