Author: Jean Cabot

Music: Dust Rhinos, Great Big Sea,

Note to future self: Sea shanties were big right now because everyone was bored and locked inside.

And as a Canadian, I felt an urging to listen to the bands of my childhood which were sea shanty adjacent, Great Big Sea and Dust Rhinos!

Up and Great Big Sea by Great Big Sea and Plain Sailing and The Day After The Night Before by Dust Rhinos, specifically.

My two favourite songs from both bands had mary in the title, specifically Mari-Mac as sung by Great Big Sea (and it has been so long since I properly heard that song, I love it) and my first time hearing Step It Out Mary as sung by the Dust Rhinos which I mistook for an old traditional murder ballad instead of the modern song it was. The exact third listen when I heard ‘she pulled a pistol’ and I went ‘oh wait what’ and googled it and found all the various versions where she murders or is drowned and I was like ‘ahh a traditional’ but apparently people singing it have just been very busy.

My only disappointment with this listening jag is that apparently Dust Rhinos’ Helter Celtic is nowhere to be found anymore and I used to listen to that cassette over and over when I was but a wee hamster. I googled it and… there might be something called Prehistoric with the songs on it? But again not anywhere I could find available to me.

The quest continues.

As for sea shanties in general, it’s nice I know what The Wellerman actually consists of now because I never had time to just sit and listen to a tiktok.

World of Warcraft: Teamwork Part 2

So we tried out those ‘do dungeons as a guild for achievements’ and it went great until the verrrry last three seconds we glitched out a boss at the Shado-Pan monastery. And then we were like ‘and next we’ll do raid runs! And show them all!’ but it turns out you need at least eight players for that and we are a small but powerful guild of three.

Oh well. Maybe next life. We’re already maxing out our guild bank every two days on just three players, I can’t imagine a bank situation that’s fair for eight. No matter how much sad mammoth I’m willing to make my dwarf eat to make room in the tabs.

I hope when I am old, I will remember how we would witheringly say ‘mechanics‘ about a game function before doing terribly at it.

World of Warcraft: Ding! ‘I Believe You Can Fly’

I got my mechagnome Krome up to level 30! That means FLIGHT.

For her flying mount, I chose the Wonder Wing because I got it in the process of unlocking her and it felt right. The wings are kind of offputting in flight though. But I’m committed by this point, honestly. I might switch out her Gearhopper ‘Shiny’ for the pet version of the Wonder Wing and name IT ‘Shiny’ to keep the joke going, but I don’t know. Feeling cute.

Also I updated her outfit to celebrate her brand new level 30 and no longer needing to be in costume file ‘noobiewarlock2’

World of Warcraft screencapture of a mechagnome named Krome
I love the little kerchief this robe has so much.

Music: P!nk: Funhouse, Vitamin C: Vitamin C, Savage Garden: Savage Garden, Amy Winehouse: Back to Black, Britney Spears: Circus

P!nk: Funhouse

  • P!nk continues to give me anxiety with her break up songs to the point it’s actually a pretty big distraction from the music, BUT I love ‘Bad Influence‘. It influenced me to actually make my first playlist on the music service (Amazon) I’m using. Finally googled who she goes to sit with in So What and it’s… ‘drum boy’? Well, that’s better than what I was hearing which was ‘I guess I’ll go sit with Trump, boy at least he’ll know how to hit’ which, thanks, ears, thanks.

Vitamin C: Vitamin C

  • Very easy listening. Little confused when Smile ended with a reggae woman talking about dimples until I remembered like, the point of the song. I don’t know much about Vitamin C except a REALLY great Barbie was made of her. Anyway I probably won’t be relistening to this album, but I enjoyed it the whole way through. Since I’ve been starting out trying albums on the music service, I’ve only relistened to a few of the several I’ve gone through already. I guess they’re like me and books.

Savage Garden: Savage Garden

  • This was an album that was one of the background musics of my teenagerhood and it transported me right back. Even my cheek was breaking out. THIS is one of the ones I was relistening to, I think half nostalgia and half ‘oh man I REALLY like this’. The first three tracks, To the Moon & Back, Carry On Dancing, and Tears of Pearls, were especially pleasing to mine ear.

Amy Winehouse: Back to Black

  • Another one I liked well enough but won’t be listening to again, probably. It was sort of weird hearing her voice and then checking her picture and no, that was a white English woman, not a Black American woman. I think the dissonance put me off. Anyway, rest in peace, Amy Winehouse, I do understand why you had fans. Also your wikipedia page is incredibly huge holy crap.

Britney Spears: Circus

  • I really really like Womanizer, Circus, Kill the Lights, and If U Seek Amy to an amazing degree and the moment I heard Blur and Mmm Papi my knowledge of Britney Spears’ living situation made me feel so ill I was unable to finish the album until the next day and will probably never listen past If U Seek Amy ever again. Eurgh.

Partners in Crime: The Clergyman’s Daughter

The premise of this episode was that it was a ‘house seems to be haunted – Tommy and Tuppence prove it’s not!’ except that at no point did anyone think it was haunted and the victim identified who was actually the source of her problems in her interview with the detectives and they immediately pegged the rest. And then the rest of it was solved with a riddle that they just kind of plowed through.

There WAS an adventure part of the episode I liked, where Tommy and Tuppence nearly get shot to death, but alas, I hope the book this episode was based off of is more mystery-ish than this episode. I’m still planning on reading them, after all!

There was also a deeply clever moment where to deter people spying on her, Tuppence gets the man who just pointed where the macguffin was to start pointing where the sun rises, the sun sets, and some other thing and the spyers are like ‘what the hell is going on’. Anyway, I liked that bit. Good bit.

Grim Tales: The Legacy Session 3

My protagonist continues to be an agent of chaos and destruction.

I want it to be clear, for the upcoming pictures, that my goal was to scare away a wolf. Okay. Just scare away a wolf.

Grim Tales the Legacy screenshot where the protagonist decides to destroy a chunk of road
You might think: Did I have any reason to suspect that this would help me achieve my goals in any way? The answer is no. I had absolutely no reason to destroy that beyond ‘agent of destruction’

 

So I do eventually scare away the wolf after destroying a small town (at some point I cut a hole in a display case because that was less destructive than just smashing it?) and etc etc I’m not giving away the plot any further but my next obstacle:

Grim Tales The Legacy screenshot of a blow torch being held up to cobwebs
I thought ‘well I could get a stick or I could use a rake’ and the game said ‘use a blowtorch and let this motherfucker burn’
Grim Tales The Legacy screenshot of cobwebs on fire
Did this backfire in any way? No. Not actually.

 

And now I am taking a break because I have solved enough puzzles and burnt enough things down for today.

Toys! Barbie Fashionistas 2021

Toys are a form of media! I should put up my vinyl toys sometime with glamour shots. To at least remember their line names.

The 2021 Fashionistas are pretty great. I’ve already gotten most of what I want in the wave, with just Kens 167, 163, and 162 left that are on their way. Mostly I use them as stand-in action figures for the stories I write because for some weird reason a lot of the fashionistas look a lot like characters I’ve created and I don’t really object, you know? It’s fun.

Anyway, here’s what I got of this wave so far:

Barbie Fashionista 156 with blue lipstick and an afro
156! She was going to be my new Molly Blackwell (blue lipstick!) but turned out to be too tall. Long will reign original Molly Blackwell.
Two Barbie Fashionistas, which are 157 and one with a catprint t-shirt and freckles
The first one to arrive and already secluded off to a safe place to stand and a previous wave fashionista who’s just adorable. I really like the purple hair on 157. It’s really pleasing in person.
Barbie Fashionista 161 with orange hair and a plaid outfit
161! I don’t really have anyone in mind for her, but I find her pleasing.
Barbie Ken Fashionista 164 has brushed back hair and a malibu 61 shirt
164 looks so guileless. It’s not present in this photo but he has these really great sweat pants with stars on them I want in real life. He stands like a champ.
Barbie Fashionista 166 with long wavy hair and rainbow clothes
I HAD to have this one when I saw her hair. What a beauty! 166 is probably my favourite of the ones I’ll be getting of this line.
Barbie Fashionistas 166, 156, 161, and 164 pose in groupshot
The whole gang! 166, 156, 161, and 164 are really lovely. My dad made fun of their fashion but the man wears a boater hat when he thinks he’s getting away with it.

 

Also, pleasingly, these Barbies have some neat new packaging! They come in basically really big pencil cases which I will definitely be getting more use out of in the future.

Pink plastic zipper cases that held 2021 Barbie Fashionistas
Zippers! Good sizes too.

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 16: Shadow of Evil

“As the Turtles try to find pieces of a strange metal Baron Draxum is looking for, Splinter intents(sic) to get to the bottom of these odd activities at April’s new job at the Foot Shack. He soon learns that the Foot plan to resurrect their ancient master the Shredder by reassembling the Kuroi Yoroi armor. As the parties clash, the secrets of Splinter’s past finally come to light.”

Thanks, Wikipedia.

So! This is many things: A plot episode, an April episode, a Splinter episode, and a ‘randomly terrible things happen to Donnie’ episode. All of which please me. I was sad the Foot Recruit was not in this episode, as that would have been the perfect cherry.

There was a great bit at the start with two punks and a rhino and a warthog and the Turtles going that if they (the punks) were mutated they would be unstoppable! and I chuckled knowingly and said ‘I got that reference’. It also makes me miss my two cats that were named Bebop and Rocksteady. Bebop could really take a petting like a champ.

I enjoyed the Splinter backstory and him being more fatherly. And for some reason Mikey going ‘You cute little guy!’ as he raced into attack was the best.

Future self, you enjoyed this episode when you have inevitably forgotten everything and look back at this.

Planet Zoo Session 4

I got land and began to set up my second zoo (Filename: Baby’s Second Zoo) which was going to be an all tortoise spectacular (today I found out terrapin only refers to a specific type of turtle which the dictionary was quick to tell me was edible before it told me anything else) and then I found out there weren’t, exactly, any blueprints to what I wanted in the blueprint area of the game and I’d have to go to the steam workshop to download them.

Well, welcome to Sims hell, I guess.

I got some pretty ones but spent more time on window-shopping than playing.

Grim Tales: The Legacy Session 2

Screencap from Grim Tales The Legacy about the Gray family's tendency to get locked in dungeons
This is a brutal and unnecessary burn on John Gray and I am pleased.

 

So I’m playing another session of Grim Tales: The Legacy where I spend my time backtracking back and forth across yet another property with a torture chamber inside. Incidentally, a lot of chaos gremlin energy in this session. At one point I decided to just start using the guns/boomerangs on any animal in my way and it turned out that was, in fact, the answer the game wanted me to do.

Then the fires began.

Screencap of Grim Tales The Legacy telling me to burn hay to search inside of it
You know what makes hay easy to search in? FIRE. I respect this choice from the game.
Screencap of Grim Tales The Legacy telling me to burn a stuffed bird for the sake of it.
There turned out to be tweezers inside. There is actually no reason given to why I wanted to burn that bird, just that it was there and I think the protagonist is losing it a bit. I respect this.

 

It wasn’t just fire.

Screencap of Grim Tales The Legacy showing dynamite on a gate mechanism.
It’s direct.

 

This is somewhat out of sequence, the petty destruction of the bird was third in order. Anyway, I had been given three items to burn things at this point. Flint, matches, and a hunk of burning coal. I hope, eventually, to take down the entire castle.

Screencap of Grim Tales The Legacy of an empty picture frame and text indicating the protagonist of the game wants this to end.
I don’t know about you, protagonist, I’m having a lovely time.

 

And I think by this point, the protagonist wants me to as well.