MOVIE NIGHT!!!! Liz, Pat, and I went to see Iron Lung, since Pat expressed interest and I love any excuse to get out of the house to do stuff. We had a great dinner of Costco Hot Dogs™ before going to my favorite movie theater of all time: the Ancient Egypt themed one~


and of course I brought Double Face along!!! I needed them to meet Anubis (clearly)


also Madara's kigu has a big enough tail that I could pose him standing up on the sphinx and I love that for him~
The movie itself was really good! It's not the type of horror that I usually go for - I dislike post-apocalyptic settings, space, and "trapped in a ship" horror - but since I didn't read up on it at all that's on me XD Plus, I'm always down to go to a thing a friend wants to do. And I'm glad I saw it despite it not being a thing I would have sought out, if that makes sense? The cinematography was fucking gorgeous; I kept getting lost in how incredible the lighting was.

ALSO THE BLOOD WAS SO RED IT WAS GREAT!!!!! I don't wanna spoil anything for anyone interested in seeing it, but it was just *mwah* The special effects were honestly stellar and I really like a lot of the choices made (like having some of the blood coagulate into things that looked like barnacles growing into the ship).

Downside is that it's the kind of horror that made me stressed for like 2 hours and then...I'm still lowkey stressed D: It didn't give me the release horror usually does, but it did for Pat so I think it's a personal preference. He absolutely loved it and is gonna be chewing on it for awhile.

Anyway, I also had to grab a few shots of the nuis in the mini arcade in the theater lobby. I got these kigus off aliexpress because labubu clothes (mostly) fit on the pattythree enstars nuis, and I got them like right before it got super icy cold out. So obviously I have to fix that~


aren't they precious???? I'm extra jazzed about getting them with claw machines because of Kohaku's card from Spring Night and the current top-up theming in globalstars *w*
Also, Liz managed to dig the car most of the way out!!! We have suuuuuch a long driveway that it's taken quite awhile, but now that it's been slightly warmer for a couple days, it's finally doable. And I apparently have a doctor's appointment on Friday, so I need to be able to get there.

I'M DONE WITH SNOW. It was nice for awhile but oh my god. I'm over it!!!!!!!!

I was so excited about Madara that I forgot to share that I actually finished another mood theme: Ensemble Stars! Cards ;D I have no idea where all this inspiration is coming from, but I'll take it. I think this is the one I'm most proud of, since it required a bit more editing and going through soooooo many more images to pick moods.

Today, Liz stayed home for a much needed mental health day. We ended up playing some more Katamari Damacy - technically Once Upon A KATAMARI but I just kinda think of them as all one big fun thing - and did some light cleaning in the living room & dining room before napping on the couch. All in all, very restful (for me at least, and I think Liz as well) :D

And then after Pat got home from work, Liz made a very tasty dinner of pork loin and roasted baby red potatoes. It was so good *w* We used to get pre-marinated pork loins from just the regular grocery store, but Lidl has them now for way less, and they're easily just as good. So that's good to know!!

Since we'd gotten started earlier, Liz, Pat, and I did some more cleaning after dinner. We got the Christmas tree taken down, took a bunch of crafting supplies back up to the third floor, and organized the stuff we're keeping down here. The basement still needs to be fully sanitized after the waste pipe burst last month, so all the Christmas stuff is still upstairs, but at least it's now condensed down into boxes.

BUT IT'S LOOKING SOOOOOO GOOD DOWNSTAIRS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pat's also gonna help me go through all my clothes and put them away, since laundry is where I stall out a lot. And we got a cat tree to put in our bedroom like two months ago, but Liz and I haven't been able to make the space for it so it's just.....still in a box in the kitchen..........

Anyway. I'm gonna think on the positive side and be proud of all that I did get done today!! :D


some great recent pictures of Pat: a sign he found on the side of the road that got knocked down by a snowplow and posing with part of the Christmas tree like it's a fish XD


the new Katamari is honestly soooo good and I've taken a decent amount of screenshots so far, but I think this T-rex might be my fave. the way the dinos are rendered is just delightful ;D


this steggy is a close second, tho ♥
I gotta go finish up the JP event tonight so I can be prepared for everything that's coming OwO And probably play more Katamari, since I am like a man possessed with it~

Another day spent playing FFVII all day.......I can't help it!!!!! I feel like it's easy to forget how gripping older games can be- even for me, a person who loves retro games. But damn if the PS1 version isn't still so fucking fun. I spent a solid hour grinding for gil because I was gonna buy the lifetime pass for the Golden Saucer only to not end up doing that lmao and it felt...I mean, not like no time at all, but like the time flew by.


real talk the most embarrassing part is that I wanted to quit but I got peer pressured by Liz and Pat into getting MORE than 30k gil (you know, to have an extra buffer lmao)

( don't worry I have even more gameplay pix from the past couple days )

So that's my entry about my day XD

jk jk I have a little more~

I'm trying to fix my sleep schedule, since I've been staying up until 4am (or even later) every day/night/whatever you wanna call it. So I woke up when Liz did (around 8 am) and...damn I'm wiped XD

HOWEVER.

Pat's brother is coming down tomorrow because he's traveling to a bachelor party further south, and it's far enough away that it would really help if he stayed at our place for a nice. Which is totally fine! But he was really unclear about when he was actually coming; we thought it was Thursday or Friday. BUT NOPE. We found out today that it's tomorrow. So we've been doing a lot of SUDDEN CLEANING to make sure he has somewhere to stay.

Liz is currently kicking ass cleaning out the living room couch...I love them....

I FINISHED KOHAKU'S BIG BOW TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So clearly it was time to take the nuis on an ~adventure~
Also, Pat and I had avoided going to the new Ebisu yesterday and could not pull that off again XD We wanted to see the (relatively) new Japanese store!!!

....but first we went to Chili's for dinner. It had a wait and I was really hungry and I had to work very hard not to throw a tantrum in the Chili's entryway, because I'm the strongest. It ended up being fine and the food was good and I survived waiting XD I was feeling particularly whiny and difficult earlier, which suuuuucked.

BUT EBISU WAS REALLY GOOD!!!! It has its own parking lot in Towson, which is a big plus! Also if this place had been there when I was in college, I would have been even more broke than I already was XD Pat I both kept marveling at how much it would have destroyed our finances back then, lmao.

Honestly, I was having a bad pain day so didn't stay as long as I would have liked...which was maybe a good thing? XD They had a lot of tasty looking snacks that I don't usually see at H Mart or Lotte Market, so I will definitely be going back to peruse more of those.

And then we came home and farted around for awhile, but tbh we had originally gone out for bubble tea - cuz a lot of bubble tea places are super cute for optimal nui photoshoot options - and then we didn't end up going. And I started working on this entry at like 9:45 pm, at which point I got disappointed that we never got bubble tea...

NEVER FEAR, GONG CHA IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of their locations is open until 11 pm on the weekends, so we went back out~ However, they were out of boba...and a lot of other things.....but whatever, we had a nice time AND I got cute pictures ♥


they look so cute in the ita bag now!!!!!!!

( even more pics from the nui adventure! )

Anyway! I'm now very satisfied and exhausted. The JP enstars server is down for 24 hours of maintenance to roll out the new UI, so I'm sad it's and nervous about what it'll be like ;w; But the merge game has hit the ENG server + my favorite Knights event is happening, so it's not all bad.

ALSO I MAXED MY FIRST EVER GACHA CARD IN ENSTARS BY HAVING TWO COPIES OF REI'S FIRST FEATURE SCOUT COME HOME WITHIN 3 SCOUTS OF EACH OTHER??????


I was expecting it to be one of the multiple cards I have 4 copies of but nope!!!! Rei pulled ahead XD

( just more enstars squeeing and shit in here )

aaaaand I think I'm gonna play for FFVII~ baibai!

ALTERED IS HERE!!!!!!!

And it started with my phone crashing in the middle of one of the event songs, because apparently it hadn't charged last night? So that sucked XD I managed to get another chance to play it, but it was very stressful and also it made me feel stupid.

After I managed to get that sorted out, we went out for some errands! I accidentally made me and Pat crave &pizza, so we got that for lunch :D And then went to Michaels, because I want to make cute bows to put on the Double Face nuis (thx to some cute ones I saw on twitter the other day).

However, Michaels ended up stressing me out because??? bad brain day?????? fussy they didn't have any active coupons??????????????????? idk I just got really overwhelmed ;w; I did end up getting some cute ribbons and shit, but it was an oddly harrowing experience.

BUT I DID TAKE SOME CUTE PICS OF THE NUIS WHILE WE WERE OUT!!!! Here's one~


saw this tree outside &pizza and I just had to put the boys in it~ they look so cute ;w;
And then I got home and continued to have bad brain times for no fucking reason??? I tried working on crafting but just got frustrated, so I tried working on icons and that also left me frustrated D: So I gave up on being "productive" and played a bunch of Crisis Core, and that helped :D

Also, it gave me something to do while my phone was running a billion autoplay loops of the engstars event XD

IN THE MIDST OF THAT THOUGH!!!! I FINALLY GOT NATSUME TO RANK A!!!! Because I managed to pull his rate up 5*, he's getting fans in basically every song, soooooo it helped push him the last little bit of the way to 75k ♥ So, he's almost forgiven for gacha crimes (betraying me during the Halloween MaM event in jp and cn).


sobs it's been such a long journey...cannot believe I have four different idols to rank A now...
Other than that...I've gotta log into jp and cn even once today...I've been neglecting them in favor of eng, because I've been looking forward to this event for over a year. Also my head hurts ;w;

Guess who drove down to DC to get a remaster of a video game? THIS GUY!!


it's nostalgia time babeeeyyyy
I'd been meaning to pick it up for years, but the price of a used copy finally dropped to something reasonable, soooooo~ TIME TO DRIVE TO THE ONLY GAMESTOP IN THE BALTIMORE/DC AREA WITH A COPY!!!! We got to the mall with approx. 15 minutes to get to the store before closing, which wouldn't be too hard if the mall wasn't so fucking massive. Seriously, there's both Costco and Target inside the fucking mall. It's too damn big.

BUT WE GOT IT!!! I'm delighted to have it on ps5 now - thus adding to my very small library of ps5 games, lmao - so that I can experience it again and show it to Liz and Pat. I played it when it first came out, so my memories of Crisis Core are hazy at best XD So it's exciting!!!!

.....except for, you know, the worst part of modern gaming:


WHY. CAN YOU NOT JUST LET ME PLAY MY FUCKING GAME???? WHAT MORE IS THERE TO INSTALL??????????
This game is over 21gb so it's taking forever to install for some god damn reason. I just want to keep beating up monsters!!!! sobs. It's still fucking working on it...hence why I'm making a dreamwidth post.

( mall pix + a throwback )

Anyway, this all started because I was making aeriseph icons for a challenge and so...they were on my mind ♥

OH MY GOD IT'S FINALLY DONE BYE BYE

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH IT'S ABOUT TO BE THE 4 HOUR MAINTENANCE FOR THE JP EVENT!!!! I CAN'T WAIT FOR IT!!!!!!!!!!!! I love Eden and I love the look of this event and I cannot wait for whatever deranged bullshit Ibara gets up to XD

Today we went to Lidl and I got overdone, which appears to be a Lidl theme these days???? I mean I'm also just only feeling so well...I went too hard on Friday and I've been feeling it all weekend ;w; We did get fancy cheese and bruschetta, so I had a dinner of crusty bread with stuff on it. It was very tasty!!!!

I've also made a bunch of icons this week!!! I participated in iconthat for the first time in like...two years........idk I keep forgetting to check out their challenges somehow? I wasn't even sure if I'd participate in this one, since it was about making icons focused on specific emotions and I didn't wanna do something that seemed complicated XD But I ended up doing it and coming up with some really nice stuff~

By the numbers, I've made more icons in the first three months of 2025 than I did in all of 2024, so I'm quite proud of that! Hopefully I can keep this momentum going :D

Also, I recorded a bunch of SPPs in enstars today, because the discord chat was talking about them and I have, uh, a lot of cards. AND the new Kanata 4* came with his SPP for Eccentric Party Night, which I had to see.

Watch on YouTube

but he's sooooooooooooo cute so it was very worth it ♥
also this video was a pain in the ass to embed because I tend to use my own hosting, but that doesn't work with DW whine whine whine

But yeah!! I'm excited for Eden and excited for using that MV for evil purposes OwO aka, icon making~

Hey, look, the event calendar in CN did a funny thing and Madara's stupid fucking spring time Halloween event is actually happening in spring XD


he's here he's here he's heeeeeeere I should be embarrassed by how excited I am but I'm not
I don't have a very good event bonus because I'm largely f2p in CN and I'm running low on sources of free dia + of fucking course Natsume didn't come home. again.

BITCH.

I love him he's just sooooo tsundere it hurts

I also ended doing chores earlier!!!!! I know I said I was probably gonna nap, but I cleaned the whole living room! :D I even took the rug out back and beat a bunch of dirt/dust/etc out of it, which was nice...the weather was cool but not too chilly today~ It's just really nice to look at the living room and see how much better it looks. Liz and Pat were suitably impressed when they got home, too.

.....I did take a nap in the afternoon tho, I'll admit it XD I did a bunch of cleaning and then sat down on the couch to rest my eyes, and it was all over. Lumos napped with me though, which was sweet ♥


demon Madara looks really fucking good in this MV honestly, so I kiiiiiinda feel like I should make icons of him in it OwO
Okay okay okay FOCUS UP I'm just still quite tired + my ADHD meds are on backorder so my focus is fucking shot. I just love this event a lot even if I was raging mad when it first happened in JP. I just love to hate Madara XD

We also went to Costco this evening, got some stuff we needed, had hot dogs in the food court - which has definitely become part of the Costco trip routine! - and then chilled for a bit before making a proper dinner. I helped nudge Pat into getting back into dreamwidth, since I've found its slow pace to be a breath of fresh air compared to most of social media. And now Liz is doing some more cleaning! We're finally taking the Christmas tree down, because of who we are as people.

Other than that...I have a bunch of comments sitting in my inbox that I wanna reply to, I've just been really out of it lately D: But I've gotten some really kind words on icons I've made recently, and I wanna express my gratitude ;w; Getting back into the graphics making scene has just been really lovely. Everyone is so welcoming ♥

yaaaaawn okay it's after 1 am...maybe I'll try to sleep at a decent hour (and actually succeed????? hopefully??????)

it's Pi day!!!!!!
Liz and I went to Wegmans after dinner and picked up an apple pie, since it's something we all like, and we had pie for pi day! :D I don't think I've properly celebrated it since high school, since my school always made a big deal out of it. I'm pretty sure I've had pie on 3/14 since then, back when I worked in bakeries, but it wasn't like a "big deal" or anything. So it was nice!!!

And now we have pie~ It's actually quite good, so I don't think it'll last through the weekend XD But it'll be good while it lasts!

Also, I just had some very good gacha luck in enstars today, so I'm gonna gush about that~

( click here for my various gacha wins )

Liz and I are about to watch the first episode of Yellowjackets, because we've both heard really good things about it and have multiple friends who really like it...and he have time to kill until the JP event starts XD But no, seriously, many friends have recommended this show, so I'm actually excited to check it out! I don't usually go for real people skin shows...fingers crossed it's worth it ;D

I still feel like crap. It's kinda like.......what, I got over being sick and got one, maybe two good days before I got knocked on my ass again???? That is decidedly unfair ;w;

And I just feel so whiny!!!!!!!!!!!!

BLUHHHHHHH.

I took an accidental nap in the middle of the afternoon :T Like, all I did today was lay on the couch and watch crap on YouTube, so what did I need a nap for? I guess because I'm in so much pain I'm not getting enough sleep??? idk.

At least I did something with my evening. Liz, Pat, and I went out to dinner at a Japanese place Pat found, and...they were unexpectedly swamped. We ended up waiting more than an hour for a table on a Thursday night. What???

It was really good, though!


the boys came along - because of course they did - and helped us with the karaage chicken :D
idk what else I wanted to talk about. I think I just wanted a break from making icons because I hate everything I make right now- probably because of how crummy I feel.

bluh bluh bluh.

Lemme share some good pictures of Lumos from the other night...maybe that will give me strength...

( black cats are so good )

Now, back to waiting for the enstars scout box to start...at 2 am...... :T