Random Ramblings CCCVIII · 9:15am Aug 27th, 2018
IN WHICH I BLEED MONEY
As I start this post, it's the middle of the night. Today's video comes from the wonderful singer Ayami Muto. Enjoy!
Why her? I'll get to that past the click-me.
Okay, so as always, I want to give y'all an update on my writing progress -- a.k.a. the reason I'm here and why you started following me to begin with. I'm proud to say I have finished tweaking all of my old stories to restore and/or round-off their word-counts. This includes bringing Spider Queen back to its original word-count of exactly 4,000. That I used most of the seventy extra words to talk about humanoid Fluttershy's breasts was just a nice bonus.
Also, one of my readers asked me about a possible continuity error regarding Rarity stealing Sunset's scooter, saying Sunset forgot. Nope, no error. Sunset brought it up in at least two other stories after it happened.
Sometimes I even amaze myself with my ability to somehow hold all this continuity together, minus a hiccup here or there.
I have uploaded my latest one-shot to the site. It still needs editing for both word count and continuity. The reason it took so long was because I had trouble coming up with a title for it, but I came up with one that gets its point across. Look forward to Not-Quite-Straight Talk in the near future!
…Uh, and for the record, I titled the story before Senator John "Straight-Talk Express" McCain's death on Saturday. I rarely agreed with him politically, voted against him in 2008 (not like it mattered since he was gonna win my state anyway). But I would never wish glioblastoma on anyone.
As I mentioned last time, my HVAC unit is set to be replaced, probably on Thursday. That's going to set me back several thousand dollars. So what do I do? I buy several hundred dollars worth of import CD's, comics, manga, and Blurays. Right Stuf, the anime seller I go to whenever I have money, was having a Dark Horse sale. I bought a bunch of Avatar (Last Airbender) comic books. I also noticed that several things in my "Save For Later" pile were still on sale, so I said fuck it and bought those too. I re-upped my membership (which takes another 10% off) back in March when I bought a few things. It starts paying for itself after you spend ~$150, and lord knows I spent more than that back in March, to say nothing of tonight.
But hey -- discounts, no sales tax, and free shipping. Can't beat that. Free shipping from Rightstuf, even if it's in-stock, takes a week or more to arrive at my home from their warehouse in central Iowa (most of that time is spent actually getting the order processed; the shipping itself takes like three days, as I live "only" a few hundred miles from Iowa).
I also attempted to buy Ayami's two studio albums and one live collection she released when she was active in 2014 and 2015. I wasn't able to get the live album on Amazon JP and CDJapan was iffy about availability, so I eventually bought all of them on a different site claiming to have them in stock that I hope will actually ship them to me and give me a heads-up when it happens. EMS takes awhile -- I should know; I worked with them when my ex and I were in the doll import business -- but that's fine. I'm not in any hurry.
However, it is annoying that DHL seems to take their sweet time with my stuff as soon as it hits Cincinnati and missing the promised delivery window. Well, technically I'm still in the delivery window until Tuesday. But, I have another Amazon JP order that shipped before the weekend (as it was all in-stock no preorders) and it's supposed to arrive later in the week. I wouldn't be shocked if DHL decides to hang onto my earlier order and wait for Box Two to show up at the local distro center to save them a drive. I know I would if given the chance. Ah, logistics.
I should feel guilty for spending all this money on frivolous collector things. But, I remind myself that these are one-time purchases that just happen to come all at once. Also, it's still cheaper than being addicted to cigarettes and alcohol since I only have to buy them once.
I guess it's not really "throwing money away" if it's something I know I'll enjoy.
I've been feeling extremely lonely lately because I have no friends who live anywhere near me. My social life is entirely online now and it's really getting to me. I constantly think about my ex-GF and how she's moved on with her Mister Perfect while I'm still stuck here, refusing to move on. I know she's never coming back, and I accept that, but losing her meant I lost almost everyone else around her.
I have no one to share my collection with. Granted, with my mother taking up residence in my man-cave and parking behind me on my narrow driveway, it's not like I have much opportunity to enjoy the things I have except in the middle of the night, which is also usually the time I go to the gym.
Incidentally, I should have gone tonight, but I've been stove up today -- I think I overdid it on the upper-body workout Friday (Saturday). But I guess if you're hurting, it's working.
I should either try to get some sleep or stay up for a few more hours. Not sure which yet.
PS -- In that video, Ayami was 17 (almost 18). She's 22 now and recently returned to Japan from a multi-year sabbatical in New Zealand. She also comes from a family of horse jockeys and is laughably short -- 149cm or 4'10.66"
Peace out!
Well that right there is two good reasons to re-read that story.
It’s crazy expensive hobbies can get. My pickup truck-related hobby gets away from me sometimes; when I was off sick for three months in 2015, I started out fixing an oil leak at the front of the engine and ended up spending $4000 on performance parts to install at the same time. (idle hands=devils playground) My wife wasn’t too thrilled about it, but she gave me a pass, given all the medical issues I’d gone through—plus I was bored of sitting in the house watching Sasquatch and Russian dash cam videos on YouTube.
And yeah, chatting online isn’t quite the same as actual human contact. Are there many people at this late-night gym that you go to?
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Those are always fun. Half of them I'm like "Did I just watch someone die?"
Not gonna lie: as a straight fellow who is single and whose most recent ex is, shall we say, rather amply endowed (much to her own dismay; being massively overweight did not help her in this regard), I sometimes have to hold myself back from talking more about the upper part of the female anatomy because readers complained I focused too much on it for a not-fetish story. Most of my IRL friends are girls; many talk about their breasts.
For the record, while I certainly enjoy large breasts, I've loved (and lost) girls with almost nothing, so it's not a make or break for me. My actual attraction is to "above average intelligence and nerdy/geeky".
Congrats on getting the word counts in order! :O
It's definitely okay to throw money at something you know you'll enjoy a lot! Imo at least.
Pretty much all my friends are online too. I'm under the impression I won't ever actually be with someone intimately, and I don't really accept that per se, but at the same time I'm not angry about it. Just a little depressed?
I read this and I nod and knowingly go 'Ah yes, someone else in idol heaven-hell.'
I shan't comment on just how much money I have spent on Love Live.
Suffice to say it is considerable
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I'm not usually big on Idols due to how badly most companies (Johnny's, etc.) treat their talent. That said, I'm a fan of Sakura Gakuin, the "Limited Growth Period Unit" made up of girls ranging anywhere from 10-15 -- what can I say? I have a soft spot for cute. Anyway, when they graduate Junior High, they age out of the group. What's interesting about them -- aside from the fact that they spawned Babymetal -- is that most of the girls don't become Idols after graduating. Three are in Babymetal (whose "Idol"-ness is an open question), three have become top-level models. Two have become voice actors, including one - Hinata Sato - who voiced a character in one of the Love Live series. Several have become proper actresses. One of the most recent grads is trying to become a singer-songwriter. And a few have left show business entirely.
I'm also a fan of LADYBABY, which started out as Idol parody with a crossdressing male Australian wrestler, then morphed into quasi-lesbian insanity after he left the two girls (one of whom is still underage until the end of November); then, after they broke up leaving only one original member left, became a four-girl unit - including one who does death-growls - and is almost anti-Idol.
It's worth noting everyone who has ever been involved with the group on the front-end is batshit insane. Especially Rie Kaneko (the model, not the former member of Hello Project), who seemed like the sane one until she ended up as the only member left, ignored advice to just give it up, and rebuilt what is now her group from scratch and is currently repaying her dues on the underground circuit. Gotta respect a girl with that level of tenacity.
Here's a good example of Rie being perfectly sane:
Sorry for the wall-o-text.
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Leah Kazuno. Hinahina voices Leah Kazuno, although she's going to likely be more notable for Starlight Revue from what I am hearing through my channels.
Seeing her do Awaken the Power at Aqours 3rd Live was suuuuper awesome.
And no need to apologize, but you know, that wall of text kind of proves my point you are in idol Heaven-Hell. And yea, I generally don't go for the rest of idol-world for the same reason of 'It's exploitative as heck' but Love Live from what I can see has largely avoided those traps (I think) although I fully assume the members aren't making nearly as much money as they should given how big the franchise is, because seriously at a minimum they should be looking at 500k/year+.
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I actually did know Hinata voiced Leah, but I wasn't sure which Love Live series you followed. My ex-GF only followed the original series. I'll admit I haven't seen any of it because I've been busy with other things, but in Otakudom, you learn things through osmosis.
I've been hearing good things about Starlight Revue. Hinata's Sakura Gakuin comrade Aiko Yamaide, whose first music video I linked a few days ago, went to see one of their performances. No photos with Hii-chan, but she did get a shirt with Leah on it.
There's a belief within the Sakura Gakuin fandom, which is that one supports and/or encourages all former members in whatever they choose to do, without exception. I have a lot of respect for Hinata -- she's still just 19 but has managed to find a good outlet for her skills. Also she's surprisingly proficient at English but rarely gets a chance to show it.
Probably true. But that's true across the entire industry.
Hinata is under contract to the talent agency Amuse -- who also have Babymetal, Perfume, and One OK Rock among others in their employ -- and has been since before Sakura Gakuin. Obviously I have no idea what her current contract is like, and it's likely to change next year once she's finally a legal adult, but chances are she earns a base salary plus performance pay.
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Well, she was definitely hilarious during the Saint Snow MC segments at 3rd Live. Girl is wonderfully troll-ey in the best of ways, too, on social media.
As for what Love Live I follow, the answer is 'All of it!' although not so far as to yet have familiarity with the PDP Seiyuu, but that will change once PDP starts doing more content I am sure.
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Hinata's twitter can be a riot. Especially when she manages to get her best friend Nene Sugisaki (former Sakura Gakuin member currently in nursing school) to show up.
Speaking of trolling, she's a long-time prankster. Back when she was a junior Idol (in SG), she had a habit of kicking the other girls in the backs of their legs - not to hurt, but to throw them off balance, as well as other trollish stuff. According to her, the only one who laughed at her pranks was Suzuka Nakamoto, now the lead singer of Babymetal.
I saw a behind the scenes video from a year or so ago of Hii-chan and another seiyuu dressed as their LL characters and when one of them was in front of the camera trying to film their message, the other was off to the side making faces and miming trying to get her to crack and blow the take. It was hilarious.
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It doesn't remotely surprise me! In an odd twist of fate, I've actually ended up, sort of, on Hinahina's twitter. It's a bit complicated and a little embarrassing, but still cool