#IDK!!!!!!!!!! easier sometimes

[roachemoji]

[collgeruledzebra]

the thing about trying to recommend fiction podcasts to someone who isn't familiar with them is that not only are so so many genres represented but also the level of production can fall anywhere from "basically an audiobook" to "major motion picture minus the pictures"

[oh-warizoro]

From now until the End

Sometimes I remember Zoro was the only one that didn't run after Usopp, and instead stayed by Luffy's side until the very last moment.

[beneathsilverstars]

Google drive link here

I got tired of switching back and forth between the wonderful dialogue maker and my image editing program, so I made some files that would let me put ISAT dialogue boxes together myself! All of my measurements are approximated and based on the dialogue maker, so I could be off by a couple pixels. But it's close enough for me (<- I say through the gritted teeth of a perfectionist who is trying to be chill).

The left 20% of each portrait gets cut off when it's used in the dialogue maker, so I've uploaded a cropped version of every dialogue portrait in the game. And the dialogue maker shrinks the portraits by 80% as well, so there's also a cropped + shrunk version.

I've included a png of the dialogue box itself, as well as procreate and psd files of the dialogue box plus editable text. You'll need to download the ISAT font if you don't already have it; I got it here. Then all you need to do is align the portrait of your choice with the bottom left corner of the file and you're good to go!

Since I'd rather use crispy full-resolution portraits for my editing, I also included dialogue box files that are sized up to match the high rez cropped portraits. I kept the same border style, which means the border is sliightly skinnier than it should be, compared to the box and portraits. So it's personal preference whether you'd rather use canon border proportions or crispy portraits.

I also uploaded the original of each portrait since I had them downloaded anyway, but they're webp? So maybe saving to my ipad didn't actually give me the original file format. If anyone has them as pngs and wants to add them to the google drive folder, hmu and I'll send you an edit link. Also, the images should all be in the same order as they are on the wiki, but they do not have the original names. So if anyone wants to go through and rename them, again, hmu.

[rebouks]

Matilda: It’s been a while… Tristen: Yeah, it feels like forever-.. uh, what brings you here? Matilda: We’re taking a forced vacation. I’m sure you can figure out who did the forcing. Tristen: Ah… Matilda: Yeah. Tristen: I kinda figured you were mad at me. Matilda: Little bit. Tristen: I should’ve said goodbye or written sooner, I guess. Matilda: Little bit-.. but you were sorting your shit out, right? I get it.

[Tristen smiled contritely, avoiding Matilda’s gaze-.. out of sheer embarrassment or a severe lack of brain functionality, he wasn’t sure]

Tristen: Is that Pixie? Matilda: Yeah-.. bit bigger now, huh? Tristen: Aha, little bit. Matilda: Anyway, you’re clearly working, so… Tristen: Shit, yeah-.. I’ve got another job to get to after this but uh, you gonna be around tomorrow? Matilda: Yeah, we pretty much just got here. Tristen: Okay, uh.. meet me outside the pharmacy at ten? There’s only one in town n’ it’s on like every map-.. I don’t have my phone with me, so…

Matilda: Yeah, sure. Tristen: Okay-.. uh, yeah.. okay! Matilda: Bye, Triss. Tristen: Bye-.. see you tomorrow? Matilda: Yep. Tristen: Ten o’clock? Matilda: Uh-huh. Tristen: Okay.

Previous // Next

[willyhoos]

bro has been in the timeloop for so long he has begun to view his friends deaths as obstacles instead of tragedies😭😭😭💀

[housecow]

I sometimes wish I had your appetite. It must be amazing to just want to try all these delicious foods without feeling nauseaus after 1 plate of food 😓

at a certain point the mindset is: maybe this next bite will make me less nauseous

and sometimes… it works…

[dreamlogic]

i told my physical therapist today about how i plan to get a xenomorph tattooed on my hip to highlight my hysterectomy scar, bc when i still had my reproductive organs i likened period cramps etc to having a live-in chestburster, then after surgery the complications that stupid lil ½" bastard scar gave me made it feel like i still had an alien parasite ravaging my innards... so the tattoo will be an homage to all it took to overcome that long painful history, as well as a way to honor my beloved monster wife.

then she shared a story about a close friend of hers who found out she had a tumor the size of a clementine that had been growing in her brain since childhood. it was safely removed & she's fine now, and she got a tattoo of a clementine slice behind her ear near where the tumor had been as a fun little inside joke with herself.

and i think about the long history of medicinal tattooing, and of people using ink to either cover or accentuate past wounds ranging from self harm to cancer to gender transition and everything in between and i just. i love how humans tell stories with our bodies. i love that we get to decorate the shapes that house our souls to reflect our experiences and celebrate our survival and carry what we find beautiful with us for life.

[nordfjording]

+ this isnt about american politics specifically as we're seeing the same thing over here but people saying they'll vote conservative because for the last 4yrs the economy has been tough like gosh. darn. wonder why that might be. bet it couldn't have anything to do with the veritable conveyor belt of Shitty Shit Happening Internationally for the last few years no certainly it all hinges on whoever whichever nation has sitting in the big chair atm. and im sure it wouldve been tons better if that person represented the side that very clearly says they don't give a flying fuck about keeping people's heads above water.

[bones-of-a-rabbit]

How to cheer up sad friend who can’t sleep and it’s three am: make fun of the crummy old tutor he used to have

[quesadilla-day]

hey, wait a minute / whenever you dream, am i in it?

giving the phrase "dream-girl" a whole new meaning with this one ☝️

[turochamp]

thoughts? falin loves pocket frogs.

[canon-gabriel-quotes]

Expect clip posting to slow down due to irl nonsense.

Also from the 11th to the 18th I won’t have any computer access and very little internet access but I’ll schedule a couple clips beforehand for that week 🫡

[seaofreverie]

Sparkstember Day 19: Lil' Beethoven (Ride 'Em Cowboy)

First of all, let this very important fact be known: the love I have for all three albums in the Lil' Beethoven trilogy cannot be overstated. I think I can safely call them my favourite pieces of art ever made. You know, when you look forward to something and it not only lives up to all your expectations but it's also just SO SO much more? Something about this neoclassical / dada / deconstruction of pop music / whatever-you-should-even-call-it approach is absolutely PERFECTLY suited for my tastes, and I didn't even know I was looking for something EXACTLY like this until I found it.

I think the circumstances of my first hearing of this album are pretty funny and something I got pretty lucky with actually (I often think about this with Sparks in general, as much as I wish I've known about them sooner I also do feel like they appeared in my life when I needed that the most. But anyway.) I was very eagerly looking forward to hearing it and finally seeing for myself what the genius of this album is all about. But I insisted that I can only do it through a physical format because yesss, let's make it even more *special*! The moment I've been waiting for! So yeah let's gooo, I need to wait until my CD arrives in the mail (that was one of the longest weeks of my life). And then I started to wonder, well, maybe I actually won't like it that much. To hype myself up to this extent and then be severly dissapointed - would have sucked!

Well, I was NOT dissapointed. Instead I was perplexed, confused, but also very intrigued and quite, ok not just quite, *completely* amazed already. That was the initial reaction and I think it's a rare but very beautiful moment when this happens - no need to *fully* grasp it right away, but enough to be all like "oh that was SOMETHING. I need more." As I said after that first listen (and I actually have my whole LIVE reaction to hearing LB written down lmao, that's how much of a big deal this was for me), I felt like it actually has to grow on me a bit still, gradually but surely with each next listen, rather than the 1st listen being THE prime listening experience. And that was very true! But it wasn't even gradual, it was very fast, seriously. And something very important that stood out to me right away too were the melodies - something about them, and that continues into HYL and ECOTD too. It's this classic feeling of: this always existed, or at least it feels like I've known it for years already. And as I listen more and become more familiar with them the magic still grows.

It's of course no coincidence to me that an album that relies so much on extreme levels of repetition is so addicting, even hypnotising. And once upon a time I thought that I couldn't like something that's too repetitive and therefore could be considered monotonous or "predictable". But nothing is predictable about LB actually. (Besides... ok, I'll get to that one bit later). But yeah, it's good for the brain. And it's been said before by others but this music definitely has this certain neurodivergent appeal thanks to all this, and, well, I love that aspect of it so much and I definitely relate to it on some level that goes even deeper than just song topics and instrumentation choices. It's in the structure and the fundaments of it all too.

I legally can't finish this without a dedicated paragraph to the 2004 Live In Stockholm performance because HOLY SHIT. Feeling so lucky again that all three of these albums got this treatment and we have recordings of these half-concert-half-performance-art pieces that we can now marvel at. I will say that like, a pretty big part of the sum of the appeal that LB has as an album is stored in this show and its visual and narrative elaboration on its themes. And also it's just so fun to watch! Sometimes I thought about how this might be an even better introduction to LB / this era of Sparks / Sparks in general than the actual album but well, never had a chance to test that and you know. Maybe shouldn't recommend Sparks with one of the most leftfield things there is to be found from them. Either way, very good, very important, felt like experiencing the power of LB for the first time all over again.

So now, please hear my exact reasonings for why I so deeply love (almost) every single one of these songs......

The Rhythm Thief

NO song made such a big impression on me the first time I heard it as this. I might have gotten more used to it after all this time but man, The Rhythm Thief, you will always be the realest one to me. This is what made me look forward to the whole album so much and convinced me that it would be like nothing else I've heard before. And that turned out to be so very beautifully true!

How Do I Get To Carnegie Hall?

I could listen to this one a hundred times in a row over and over and not get sick of it one bit. That's it, idk what else to add, beautiful and ethereal in every way

What Are All These Bands So Angry About?

Mostly I just want to direct everyone's attention to the bridge section, at the 2:26-2:52 time mark, which as far as I can say is the most heavenly piece of music ever made. Feeling like that Winnie The Pooh soul leaving his body gif each time I hear this

I Married Myself

Aromantic anthem, to me. Not that much to say actually but it's just, a very sweet and pretty song even when it might be taken as just this sort of ironic piece, I think it's this situation where a song can be taken more or less literally and it doesn't lose anything, rather the sincerity takes on a new sort of meaning? Because yes, maybe this hyperbolic situation (marrying yourself) COULD be the solution to the heartbreak of failed relationships. Ever thought about that??? Ok, stopping right here and leaving my I Married Myself analysis for another day

Ride 'Em Cowboy

My mind is blank on this one suddenly. But it's so good believe me. I love it a lot. It just has this LB spirit that makes it very addicting to listen to

My Baby's Taking Me Home

This was sort of the first Sparks song I've ever heard, or maybe that I quote-unquote purposefully listened to, and I think that's pretty important considering that it was the moment that ultimately lead to... all this. This song has always been incredibly beautiful and powerful to me, but lately it just makes me emotional to an extent that makes it hard to listen to most of the time. I WOULD sell all my material possessions for even one chance to experience this song live by the way

Your Call Is Very Important To Us. Please Hold

Earns soooo much as a live version, but even without that I think it's genius in the same way as The Rhythm Thief, and maybe the most disquieting piece here overall... If we ignore the next one maybe

Ugly Guys With Beautiful Girls

Sitting there hearing the intro of this song all like "huh, this is so chill and calm... too calm..." and then being hit with, well, everything that's going on in this song afterwards was truly THE MOMENT back in the day (and re: the predictability thing. idk though, it's not like, really an issue). Later on I decided that this sort of narrative nature of the song makes it have less replayability value than the rest (???) but I abandoned that opinion soon enough, thank god. I love it how long it took me to realize that this song and the ending of MBTMH are the only times when drums appear on this entire album (I mean no, I'm not very proud of that fact actually, as the self-proclaimed biggest LB fan in my area. And The Rhythm Thief literally saying "say goodbye to the beat"... come on man). So yes, sometimes less is more! I adore this song now it's such a treat I would gladly terrorize my neighbours with it

Suburban Homeboy

Ok, I'm sorry Suburban Homeboy fans but this is the only song here that I'm not a HUGE fan of. I still think it's brilliant and an incredibly fitting ending for the whole thing - the mood whiplash is amazing as this is the only "vaguely happy sounding" song on here, per my words from months back. And what's better than yelling WE ARE THE SUBURBAN HOMEBOYS! (I'm actually awaiting today's Sparks karaoke rating reveal very impatiently lol the reveal happened before I posted this and I'm very happy about it)

One more actually, a quick word on Wunderbar because it gave us two things that we might have not been able to do without: 1) this whole album actually (the fact that LB exists because of Wunderbar giving the Maels the idea to continue meddling with this style. Up there as one of my fav pieces of Sparks trivia) 2) anddddd the 21×21 performance of it of course

[arsenicflame]

izzy hands with misplaced resentment towards jim because of the association with losing limbs in the night out of his control