Sunshine Revival Challenge #3 & #4
Jul. 16th, 2025 07:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elyusion
I feel like if you asked me this 10 or 15 years ago, I would have an answer... But these days I eat the same microwaveable food year-round, and I can't even think of any summery foods off the top of my head. Many other people answered BBQ, and I do think of BBQ as a summer thing when reminded of it, but it didn't come to mind on my own. Plus I haven't had any in a long, long time.
Listed by what comes to mind first:
1. The Neoromance series - this is the name that refers to all dating sims by Koei. I've only played from Angelique, Haruka, and La Corda d'Oro so far, but imagining playing the other series too makes me happy - and then immediately frustrated because I'm so slow at making progress. I'm not allowed to play games until I do everything on my to-do list for the day, and I'm not often able to do that... Regardless, the games make me really happy. I've really had Clavis (tall brooding guy in the fashion of a Greek god-ish), Eisen (really sweet, thoughtful boy with low self-esteem in the fashion of a Heian monk... with gorgeous hair), and Azuma (rich, intelligent, popular student who bullies the player in private to blow off steam) on the mind these days. Additionally, I like a bunch of other Angelique and Haruka characters too, but I played Corda way too fast and didn't really get to know the other guys. I should work on that. I should stop rambling, too.
2. Visual kei - Do you know what a "scene" is in the music world? Because visual kei is a "scene," not a genre of music. It can sound like anything - although it's invariably a type of rock or metal. The unifying factor is that the musicians dress up very... interestingly. Looking it up on your image search engine of choice would demonstrate better than words can. Anyways, I like music (as previously stated...!), so yea. For the past few weeks I've been listening to a bunch of bands trying to find my favorite band within every subgenre (subscene??), so I've discovered many neat songs in many styles, and I think that's awesome. I like fashion too, and edgy stuff, and long hair, and androgyny, and crossdressing, and a little homosexuality between bros, and dramatics, and wild stories, and........... yea, you get the idea. While I'm listening to music and even when I'm not, I have all these cool photos of the musicians to look at, and that's really great too. And when I'm REALLY bored, I can read about the musicians themselves, which is always interesting.
3. Naruto - I'd like to think we all know what Naruto is. I actually haven't gotten a chance to really sit and watch it in a while, but I still think about it and unwisely look up pictures of it despite risking spoilers. It's fun when I don't feel like it's wasting my time. Shippuden makes some interesting pacing choices... Well, I really like some characters, but more importantly: sometimes the animation or directing(?) is really good, and I stay for that. I could stop and read the manga any time - in fact, I started with the manga, but I switched to the anime because I decided the fight scenes would be way cooler animated. I was overall right, when they really decide to throw money at it, but there's also plenty of less violent episodes that look beautiful. I wish I didn't have to sit through shonenslop (episodes with middling animation that explain what's going on to me like I'm stupid and don't have eyes) to witness shonenpeak (I'm still riding the high of that Naruto v. Sasuke fight at the waterfall).
4. NU: Carnival - I don't even play this anymore TT Because I have an iPhone and having to reinstall the app after a few weeks irks me and the web version irks me even more. I could probably get BlueStacks and play it on PC, but my poor laptop is on its last leg, so I'm putting that off for until I get a new one. I shouldn't be supporting gacha games anyways. But I still really like seeing fanart. Edmond and Rei sweep 🔥🔥🔥 A big part of the reason I thought of this as something that's "making me smile these days" is because the other day I found out that someone uploaded a bunch of videos from it online, and watching them all made me plenty happy.
5. Black Butler - Haters will say I'm reverting to my 11 year old self, but I didn't even like Black Butler that much when I was 11. I don't have much to say though, besides the fact that Yana Toboso is really good at drawing people and designing outfits, and Sebastian is really cool in a ridiculous way. Like, he does things and gets out of every situation in a way where it's overdramatic or silly, but it's framed as really awesome, so I end up thinking it's awesome too. Exhibit A: Not canon, but why did he do this?
6. Illusts of my favorite characters - Image addicts be like "just one more picture bro." Anyways, I like to gaze at pictures or the same picture for a long time too. I don't know if it's stimming or what. I've been on the gallery section of sites or how sites dedicated to being galleries looking at/for pictures of my favorite characters since I don't use microblogging platforms like I used to. Sometimes I share them in my access-locked posts, but I could share even more if I had no restraint. I want to put the pictures to a new use by making icons or other graphics out of them, but that's pretty far down my artistic to-do list... I don't read fic often, so looking at pictures (and comics if I get lucky!) is the equivalent activity for me.
7. Making lists - List addicts be like "just one more list bro." I've started bullet journaling lately, and it's nice having lists in a book that has a table of contents rather than on sticky notes all strewn about on my desk. As I type this, I still have lots of random lists on sticky notes all around me, but I can rewrite the important ones all neatly in the book later and throw them away now. That's nice, I think.
8. Obscura - Obscura is a visual novel. Look it up on itch. Or Steam. It's blue! A new chapter (that I was a beta tester for, by the way) dropped the other day, so the Discord server for the game has been active for discussion. I hate to say it, but having a community that bonds over and talks about a common interest is pretty nice. I'm not super mega active and don't talk all the time, but lurking is fun, and it's one of the few servers I'm not shy and uncomfortable in.
9. Decorating online spaces - It's part of why I stay on the small web! I have little interest in spaces I can't change to look significantly different from others' anymore. I changed my DW theme last month, but since then I've been thinking about how to make my stickied post nicer too. I want to make a "Friends Only" type graphic -- albeit it would say "Partly Locked" or something instead. I want to decorate my Sheezy.Art too, and I have a fansite to finish putting the bells and whistles on, and after that there's some shrine ideas I have, I want to try making icons and wallpapers and sozai, and I want to try making layouts for websites as well as maybe Tumblr or DW... There's always something to do. Web stuff is truly a journey with no destination.
10. Um.................... Our air fryer? Been really into using the air fryer lately. We only got one fairly recently compared to many others. I should never be trusted with a deep fryer and I don't like using ovens, so it's pretty cool. Eating fried food makes me smile. The future is now thanks to science 🎉
no subject
Date: 2025-07-16 01:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-16 04:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-16 01:51 pm (UTC)There's just so much you can do... and I want to do all of it... Especially right now!! I went on a download binge for graphics resources and I'm not even done yet. I'm working on new pages even though I'm not done with what I already have planned. It's like being at an all you can eat buffet and being unable to resist the urge to take a bite off of everything. I'm enjoying it, though, which is what matters!
Your current theme looks really cool, by the way :D! I like the background a lot.
no subject
Date: 2025-07-16 04:09 pm (UTC)And thank you for the compliment! I like your sticky a lot and how it goes with your theme. I was wondering how you got the picture to have a border like that but figured as I download stuff for graphics-making I'd come across that PSD or something similar. Your profile looks awesome too! And you have a mood theme based off your favorite character... awesome... so much to
stealtake inspiration from ^^no subject
Date: 2025-07-16 11:20 pm (UTC)Right back at you! (The thanks, I mean.) I'll admit I've been googling things like "paint stroke texture" and grabbing things here and there... Unfortunately I'm not very smart and have not been saving them all LOL. I think I might still have this one though, if you want it! I've been debating trying to make my own textures and resources lately, too... Having access to a scanner and all. Can't be that difficult to smear paint on paper and then scan it!
Haha, everything is about my favorite character with me..! I expect when I get to making myself a Dreamwidth theme it will follow that pattern too. (I did choose my current one based on the colors fitting my guy, of course.) Getting to take inspiration from others and inspire them in return is one of the best things about the small web imo, so steal away! o7
no subject
Date: 2025-07-19 03:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-19 05:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-19 09:21 pm (UTC)