Decemberererererer

[elyusion]

Typing this while wearing one of those coats that make me look like the Michelin Man. I'm gonna make a different post for all of 2025 and my plans for 2026. As you can see, I'm running out of entry title ideas.

What I Did

• I graduated from school. FINALLY. No more of that! I'm terrible at deadlines and class management, even after having years to attempt to figure it out. This doesn't bode well for my future but whatever, at least in the future I won't have 5 classes to juggle. I didn't attend my graduation because I moved one 8-12 hour drive away, but even if I was still local I wouldn't have gone because 1. graduations are boring as shit, and 2. I can't imagine it having made me happy in any way. I'm only happy to be gone; I don't really care about my degree or anything.


• I made one (1) singular drawing, but you🫵🏾 haven't seen it yet because I haven't colored it. Baby steps.


• I ended my Spotify sub (in late November) and started downloading music files locally, but right when I finished with that Spotify offered me 2 months of Premium for free. Soooo. Haha. I'm just gonna cancel again when it's about time to be charged-- I even wrote it in my bujo so I definitely won't forget. I hope after a month of no Premium they offer it to me for free again, and the cycle continues forever/until I get a DAP with a UI that doesn't irk me.


• I translated a Castlevania doujishi, but I haven't put the translation on the images so that isn't online yet either.


• For Christmas my mom got me my first ever pair of Doc Martens 😎 On New Year's I fed some cows and shot some guns, both of which I've never done before, so that's cool.


• I finished...
  
  
  
  • Set It Off (1996), one of my personal contenders for movie of the year. If anyone wants to recreate the events of this movie with me lmk and we can probably work something out.
  
  
  • This collection of Elric of Melniboné stories, FINALLY. Lowkey took me the whole year 😭 I'm on the fence of whether it's funny or annoying how often the author would have to remind you of how cool and handsome and mysterious but secretly emotional except for when it'd be cooler to be emotionless he is. Yup, unless someone can think of someone like him but older, I can see how he is the daddy/granddaddy to (Vampire Hunter) D and other retro Japanese cool guys. The original covers for the Japanese release of this series were drawn by Yoshitaka Amano, look them up sometime.
  
  
  • Pluribus season 1!! This merits its own post but I haven't gotten around to it. It's soooooooooooooooo good. I will be honest and say it's a bit slow for me and I had to fast-forward through some scenes, but I entirely admit it's a skill issue on my part and not Gilligan's. I think I may need to watch The X-Files (and Better Call Saul, of course). The Plurbs can represent so many things.
  
  
  • Society of the Snow/La sociedad de la nieve. Not a bad movie by any means; I really appreciate having someone who didn't survive as the narrator. It has always bothered me that dead men can't tell tales... I want to hear their perspectives too. But I can't. Due to the whole being dead things. Anyways, I think this movie just wasn't my speed, or maybe the language barrier (I watched it with the original audio and Spanish subtitles) created an emotional wall between me and the film, but I would recommend it to other people who like survival stories and humans being kind to each other vs. whatever Lord of the Flies has going on.
  
  
  • Cardcaptor Sakura. After over a decade I finally watched The Sealed Card, which I put off when I was 13 because I didn't want CCS to end. As expected from the series it was a treat for the eyes, every cell plus their movement when combined, but I... didn't really feel much from the story at all. Again, I'm blaming the wall created by the language barrier. And perhaps even worse than the one from Society of the Snow because I couldn't find [JP] subtitles and their voices are so squeaky >_< Sorryyyy
    
  • Majo Minarai wo Sagashite, that movie about the adults who really love Ojamajo Doremi. I wish I could spend more time with those girls, so I might have preferred it as a 6-episode OVA instead. Man, we just don't get OVAs anymore. Also, God I wanna know what that one Onpu fan was getting canceled for online. (And that meganekko is so funny for being all "Don't tell me what he did online! I'd rather find out what he's like in real life" because I would NEED to know if he's jorking his shit to the fictional child idol. I would be all in his likes.)
  
  
  • Twisted Wonderland: Episode of Heartslaybul. The dub was soo fun. So many of the characters sound 💁🏾‍♂️ As God Intended. The animation was good too, although I've learned I may have low standards since I watch old stuff so much. It's funny how much money is being spent on TWST by Disney Japan, meanwhile Disney USA does not give a fuck. Understandable, but LOL. I'm eager to watch the next season ^_^ (It's worth mentioning I don't play the games and everything I know is from my friend and osmosis.)
  
  
  • The Legend of Hei 2, which is also a contender for movie of the year and I still haven't decided which is better than which. The action scenes are smooth as fuckkkkkkkkkkkk -- and I like all the character designs, and the sect in the modern day world, and the entire U.S. army trying and failing to kill this guy slowly floating towards them in sweatpants and slides, and etc. etc. Watch this movie or else. Well, watch the first one first, but yea.
  
  
  • Chrono Trigger, which I'm very sorry to say is as good as everyone says. It might not be a 10/10 for you, but surely it's no less than a 7/10. I wuv the playable girls very much. And Magus's spell-casting animation. Lots of good animations here tbh. REALLY good soundtrack. It's fun :3
  
  
  • Naruto Shippuden. Haha, more like SHITpuden, amirite fellas?
  
  
  • When it comes to random short manga: Shishi no Odoriko (hot), Sex Therapist (acceptable), Futari Pocchi (accidentally-incestuous tragic yuri, thank you 1970s Japan once again), and Gomennasai (by Ikeda Riyoko, like Futari Pocchi, and is also tragic but isn't yuri... unless you put your yuri goggles on, but the yuri isn't quite the point). Gomennasai is a one shot, so you can go read it right now if you want. I'd recommend it!
    
  
  
• Due to Year In Review-related reasons, I had Last.fm premium that month, meaning I got a report for December. Pretty cool, pretty cool, besides the fact that I basically only have 2 or 3 tags listed. They're quite repetitive. The top artists are BUCK∞TICK, Linkin Park, Deftones, and Muse. I listened to Muse's entire discog and decided all their music sounds like variations of the same song, but it's a pretty good base song.

What I'm Doing

• The Snowflake Challenge :P


• Nailing A1 Spanish and N5 (pretty much the same as A1) Japanese. Just making sure I have everything down, you know? For the record, going by the practice exams on the JLPT site, I could pass the N3 one with ease and the N2 one with a struggle. (In non-JLPT terms, I'm approaching C1 steadily. In non-overly-concerned-with-language-rubrics terms, I'm approaching an advanced level of Japanese.) My Spanish, however, is stuck in B2/"usually knows what someone is talking about, at least"-level right now.


• I'm probably going to spend all month trying to finish Kamisama Kiss. God I wish I read Japanese as fast as I read English.


• I'm playing Sakura Taisen, which I am really enjoying so far.


• Last month I listened to songs popular in Japan, China, and Mexico. So, I know what people there generally like. This month is dedicated to listening to Japanese, Chinese (any kind), and Spanish music specifically from genres I know I like. If you have Chinese music reccs please let me know -- I'm looking for songs, albums, or an artist who isn't always making slow acoustic songs. China (and other places in the Sinosphere; I can't hear the language differences) has so much slow acoustic music. An artist will look so edgy but the song will still be slow acoustic music. Somebody please save me. (For your reference.)

What I Will Do

• The movies for this month are: Swing Girls, Soy Cuba, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. I'm going to watch Swing Girls right after I post this entry, actually.


• I need to continue my fan translation, but the storage in my laptop is so low that Photoshop has been rendered nonfunctional. So. Uh. I'll at least try to translate more chapters even if I can't edit them onto the pages this month...


• Not giving details, but if I don't drop a game this month or the next please PLEASE jump me.


• I'm supposed to start dancing and voice training this month, so we'll see how that goes.


• If I beat Sakura Taisen this month, next in line is Love Curse: Find Your Soulmate, and then Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. Usually I play one PC game and one handheld game at the same time, but right now my before-sleep activity is reading Kamisama Kiss, so no bedtime handheld gaming for me. (<- person who brings laptop to bed to play more Sakura Taisen)