Hee Hee hoo hoo here I am again! dusting off the blog for fun! Time for some life updates~!

After who knows how long I am finally free of any commission obligations for the first time in what feels like years. It's good! I'm working on sprite art for [REDACTED] project. If you've read some earlier journals you might have an idea of what it is but I don't read those things when I make new ones so maybe not. I decided to make the sprites ultra convoluted and there are 12 characters so it's taken a long time to get through them but progress is progressing!

I also participated in this year's artfight and finished with 16 attacks, all full color with some sort of background element or prop, and a couple with multiple characters! My previous best was 11 attacks with *no* backgrounds so I'm quite proud of myself. My artfight account is linked in my Social media link section to the right (or bottom if you're on mobile), so feel free to check them out! I also got a couple of great attacks, including three of Tyson, which I was not expecting at all. Dumbiee was the first person to attack me, and she even included Tyson's nephew!!!! It's so good click this link and look at it right NOW!!!

I don't think I would have been able to do anything if it hadn't been for my new PCP prescribing me muscle relaxers for my pinched nerve. Obviously I need to have the source of the pain fixed, but over the years my shoulder muscles became rock hard from trying to protect the damaged area, and that was making the issue worse. She told me to take one a night for less than a week and then "as needed", and let me tell you after a week I felt like a new man. I'm still in the process of getting an XRay so I can get physical therapy perscribed but it's literally night and day. I can sleep on my side without my arms going numb. Do you know how long I had to go sleeping on my back because of my damn muscles?!? Fuck sleeping on your back! It fucking sucks! Back sleepers DNI!!!!

In more recent news: Last night I watched Coyote Vs Acme with friends. I was a little skeptical going in since people were comparing it to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but I'm happy to report that it blew my expectations away. I loved the creative slapstick and snappy writing with characters that made the world feel beliveable. I was also pleasantly surprised by the plot, and was never 100% sure where things were going even though the overall structure was formulaic.

I think it would have been near perfect if it weren't for the animation on the toons. Most of the time it's servicable, but when it's bad it's... really bad. Really bad. Bugs Bunny has a stand out scene where he's fully frame by frame, and there's some great animation on Daffy Duck about halfway through, but it just makes the other scenes where the 3D models are standing around awkwardly stick out even more. Imagine if Sony Animation got to work on this movie...

At first I thought the animation was awkward because the movie was used as a tax write off, but apparently it was basically finished when that happened. So the executives just didn't care enough about the animation to give it the love it deserved. Despite my kvetching being twice as long as my praise I still recommend it. I'll definitely be buying the Bluray if they make one.

It's not as recent but I did also watch the Backrooms in theaters, which I'm pretty sure makes it the first time I've gone to see a horror film. I actually watched a camcorder upload of the movie on Youtube first because I was A) curious, and B) wanted to know how hard for me to stomach it would be. And thankfully it didn't bother me at all! Maybe seeing it beforehand helped desensitize me, or maybe having a crunchy, low quality copy helped my brain remember it was just a movie, or maybe the way the horror was handled just worked with my brain more. Probably a mix of all three. I don't know if I would have enjoyed it as much if I hadn't done that. My stupid brain problems aside, the set design of the titular backrooms was fantastic, the monster designs had swag and the score was YOLO. The plot felt... uneven? Rushed? I'm not sure what word I would use to describe it, and I don't have any ideas on how I would personally imporve it. It just felt... incomplete. Maybe the extra eleven or so minutes added to the uncut addition helps it, I didn't get the chance to see it.

It's a shame the biggest stain on the movie for me is the unfortunate casting decision to make Clark a black guy. Specifically the only black person in the film with a speaking role. On paper having the main character of such an anticipated movie be a black man is awesome and epic but uhhhhh maybe the therapist shouldn't have been a white woman then? Just a thought? An extremely unfortunate oversight to make in the 2020's that someone probably should have pointed out before casting was finalized. But would that have lead them to not cast Chiwetel Ejiofor as the lead in the first place?

I'm white. I don't fucking know. Perhaps it's crass of me to navel gaze about it. There are other more elegant and suitable people to listen to. I think this one right here by Sabrina is pretty good. I also like her overall review of the movie here as well.

That's all the stuff I feel comfortable talking about in detail on this public internet blog. The family had our big yearly vacation in the middle of August and my nephew was glued to my boyfriend and I the entire time. I got to see some friends in New York a week ago. Work's been going well. My birthday is in a few months. So life is good. For now.

Current Mood: Energetic despite the weather