#Mammoth Penguins

[polaroidblog]

“Memoria polaroid” – un blog alla radio S23E26

“I might find my mind’s on nothing / I can wait another day” ammettono pigramente gli Homework nella canzone che apre la scaletta di questa sera. In effetti, a volte anche questo programma è così in ritardo che potrebbe andare in onda il giorno successivo. Se anche voi avete la mente concentrata sul nulla, ecco qui un’appropriata oretta di novità indiepop e indie rock, senza tralasciare gli…

[bandcampsnoop]

9/22/23.

Precious Recordings (London, UK) is bringing us yet another (35th to be exact) BBC session. This one was recorded by Huw Stephens, thus the new purple border (John Peel is red, and Janice Long is yellow).

Standard Fare (Sheffield, UK) were a 3-piece indie rock band fronted by Emma Kupa. They clearly were inspired by the C86 sound as well as Orange Juice, Hefner and The Wedding Present. Listen to that guitar!

Kupa went on to record solo and with Mammoth Penguins.

[soundgrammar]

Listen/purchase: There's No Fight We Can't Both Win by Mammoth Penguins

[bunkerhillbros]

"X!" from Edwin Huang.

[comfortfoodcontent]

Mega Man X Poster from Club Nintendo #19

[noeggets]

Club xdive

[littlefluffbutt]

Monster pet menagerie!

The pets were one of the best things about Monster High and I was sad when they stopped doing them for the line. What’s neat is that there are variants to certain pets like like Freshwater Lagoona’s fish is purple, not pink (and has a blue bowl), Dustin and Crescent get a different look for Freak du Chic, Crossfade is a different color depending on which side he comes with and Cushion’s quills coincide with her owner’s hair color. Also I have no idea how I got so many doubles, esp hedgehogs!

They did kind of try with the reboot; Ghoul’s Beast friend CLeo came with this adorable kitten! Unfortunately she sticks out amongst the original pets as she’s SO much bigger. Oh well, still cute:)

[the-ultimate-squish]

[roesolo]

Storytime Reading: I Did See a Mammoth!

Storytime Reading: I Did See a Mammoth! @kanemillerbooks

I Did See a Mammoth! by Alex Willmore, (March 2023, Kane Miller), $14.99, ISBN: 9781684645114 Ages 3-6 An expedition heads to the Antarctic to see penguins, but one young explorer has their sights set on a greater prize: a mammoth! Sure enough, every time the party is otherwise occupied, a mammoth appears, but does the group believe the excited kiddo? You never know what could show up on a…

[chromegnomes]

Blister Blight, the game I've been part of the art team for since 2021, is finally ready to go public and is now live on kickstarter!

The buzzword-laden way I've described it in marketing materials is "story-rich 8-bit action-platformer that fuses classic run-and-gun side-scrolling gameplay with a branching story reminiscent of modern roleplaying games," but this is tumblr, so I'd like to say what I really mean by that:

Did you ever play Mega Man X when you were growing up? Do you remember how cool it was to discover that the order you beat the levels in had unexpected effects on the remaining levels, like how defeating Chill Penguin made it so that Flame Mammoth's stage was all frozen over so there wasn't as much lava? Blister Blight is a game built from the ground up around that experience.

I am incredibly proud of the work we've been able to do with after-hours hustle on whatever time and energy we have left over from our day jobs, and we're officially ready to make it our top priority. Being able to work on games full time would be an absolute dream come true for me, and I really can't imagine how much cooler we'll be able to make this game when we can truly focus on it.

I'll be posting more about the game and my contributions for it for the rest of the month, but in the meantime you can try the demo for yourself and see what I mean! It's free on our itch.io page for now, and I'll update this post when Steam gives the green light to take it public there, too.

If you like what you see, or want to learn more, please check out our Kickstarter page and consider backing the game. I think we have something really special here.

[polaroidblog]

“Memoria polaroid” – un blog alla radio S23E21

“We’re either too old, too bold or stupid to move, I guess”, cantano i giovani Friko nella canzone che apre la scaletta di questa sera. Se anche voi vi riconoscete in tutte e tre le categorie, ecco qui – per darsi una mossa? – un’ora di novità indiepop e indie rock, senza trascurare i necessari brindisi, nella nuova puntata del podcast di “Memoria polaroid – un blog alla radio”, la trasmissione…

[foxymoxynoona]

Lone Blue Egg (Master)

Header and lines by the talented @awrkives

Summary: Jungkook is a simple man. He goes to work, he hangs out with friends, he worries about finding a mate to take home for his hometown breeding season. Maybe he spends a little more money on cam girls than is fiscally responsible but he has niche tastes. Maybe he feels a bit adrift, but he's a young penguin hybrid, supposedly in his prime, far from his crèche. At least he's good at one thing: taking care of his precious egg. A comfort egg, not a real egg, he's not a real penguin, just a man with penguin DNA and behavioral tendencies. Just like Yoongi isn't actually an owl, even if he does stay up all night and sometimes hoot to fuck with their roommates. But this is a real love story, even if a slightly odd one.

Penguin Hybrid Jungkook x Bird Female OC Book 1 in the Birdtan Series

CW/TAGS: humor, drama, angst, cringe, explicit sex, toy play/toy uh obsession?, ice cubes, porn, cam girls and masturbation, oviposition, oral (both), edging, semi-public shenanigans, mammoth condoms, specism, language, theft

Read on AO3 or below

Part 1 (8,119 words)

Part 2 (14,495 words)

Part 3 (18,810 words)

Part 4 (13,336 words)

Part 5 (25,273 words)

Part 6 (21,855 words)

Next book in the series

[soundgrammar]

Listen/purchase: Doesn't Work by Mammoth Penguins

[aut2imagineart]

I had to put in a lot of time and work for this piece but I was set on this concept.  Just like how I created various posthuman species for my Centauri universe, I wanted to create a bunch of variants of for another major group in said universe, the Uplifted (hybrid animals with human level sapience).  If humans need to modify/evolve to survive in different planets, it would make sense that the uplifted would need to do so as well in some cases.  What I have are the cases where I imagine the most notable changes would occur.

The top row are the uplifted modified for high gravity environments.  The Avian Parogions would have stronger bone structures and walk on their wings for additional support but wouldn't be too impacted by high gravity due to their lighter mass.  Ironically, the higher air pressure on high gravity worlds would make flight easier for them.  The mammoth-like Behemoths would have a more challenging time in high gravity.  They counteract this by using their tusks and trunks as additional support that functions like a sled while their more flexible feet shuffles across the ground eliminating the need to lift their legs.  The Dolphopods normally wouldn't be effected by gravity as they are normally in water and use technology to move on land.  For high gravity worlds, locomotive technology is more problematic so the Dolphopods would be modified to have more flattened bodies that move across land similar to slugs and mudskippers.  The Great Apes would be quadrapedic like Hi-G humans would which makes them resemble their less sapient ancestors.

The second row are low gravity inhabitants (with the exception of the Dolphopod).  Low gravity Behemoths have a lighter build that makes them more resemble camels and large antelopes.  Though adapted for lower gravity, they can tolerate earth gravity due to retaining sufficient bone and muscle density.  Low gravity Parogions are largely similar to their base counterparts save for longer legs and proportionately larger wings to fly in thinner air pressure.  Great apes in low gravity, like the Behemoths, possess a lighter build making them resemble gibbons from Earth with similar acrobatic agility.  The Dolphopod depicted in the second row isn't modified for low gravity as there wouldn't be a need for it.  Instead it's designed for fully terrestrial environments such as desert worlds, becoming a tripod with it's modified flippers and tail.

The third row are aquatic variants of which the dolphopods are excluded as they're naturally marine.  All of them possess both gills and lungs as well as retain the ability to move on land for adaptive flexibility.  The aquatic behemoth's physiology resemble an extinct order of marine mammals called the Desmostylia, while the aquatic Parogions resemble penguins and the aquatic Great Apes are more frog-like.

The last row are the super soldier variants of the uplifted, part of a group I call the Irradiated.  Each member of the Irradiated is genetically and cybernetically modified to be at their peak physiology and able to withstand extreme environments including hi-radiation (hence the name).  I have each of them partially armored to showcase some of their distinct physical features and are to scale with all the other uplifted (the irradiated Behemoth stands at 5.2m or 17.1ft at the shoulder).

Some of these designs may evolve over time and I might include more if I can think of any unique designs with a good reason for them.

As always, comments and critiques are welcome.

[tricoloured-cat]

what better way to procrastinate than to write random stuff

reviewing the works that the abilities were based on

Part 1: Armed Detective Agency

I just realized that I've finally read all the works attributed to the abilities of the author's BSD counterparts, at least for the ADA. I plan to do this for all organizations in the BSD universe so I can direct my reading and actually finish something HAHA

DISCLAIMER: I am not an expert on literature, let alone Japanese literature, and my short reviews are solely my opinion as a casual reader. These are all for fun so please don't take these so seriously!

Nakajima Atsushi Ability: Beast Beneath the Moonlight Original Work: Moon Over the Mountain

This short story has the vibes of a folktale but with existential dread sprinkled throughout. The prose is calm but the agony still reverberates. I liked this more than I though I would, perhaps because of how clean it felt. Honestly this would be one of the OG works I'd recommend to a BSD fan who wants to try classic Japanese literature.

Dazai Osamu Ability/Original Work: No Longer Human

This is probably the one novel/work most BSD fans would pick up first - and for a good reason. The themes are pretty universal albeit heavy, the tone of the narrator throughout the entire novel is gripping, the translation by Donald Keene is very readable, and it's just in the most general sense a summary of Dazai-sensei's own life. The last point must be taken with a grain of salt, however, as he's a master liar - something you'll find out if you dig more into his life and other works. If you'd like to see depression in book form, this is for you.

Kunikida Doppo Ability: Doppo Poet Original Work: Doppo Collection (probably)

Here's a case of "I can't really find the original work so I'll be reviewing something else instead"

Reviewing: Those Unforgettable People

I chose to talk about this one since it's the one found in the Penguin Anthology. It's an interesting mix of forms: technically, it's a short story. However, the elements of poetry and even of the essay are present - mostly the latter, tbh. Of course the whole "ideal" thing is such a Kunikida-sensei thing that it appears it almost every story he wrote, yet somehow in this one you'll have to squint a little bit more to see it. The point of this story-essay-poem thing is at the very end (the first half is quite dragging imo) is what gives it a little oomph, but honestly I much prefer his other works (specifically Old Gen and Death).

Tanizaki Jun'ichirou Ability/Original Work: Sasameyuki

You like a slow burn? You like pain? Familial drama? Maybe you'll like this. Maybe you won't. It's a mammoth of a book that feels like a series of extremely detailed telenovela episodes - not that it's necessarily a bad thing. I enjoyed it despite the length because the way it ends, although hardly strong at all, ties the themes and messages of the novel cleanly into a single scene.

Miyazawa Kenji Ability/Original Work: Be Not Defeated by the Rain

It's a poem every Japanese elementary student would know. The message and style is so simple yet beautiful (I read Sulz's translation). It's joyful and so sunny... until I read the background on it. I cried over his work. Again. (Night on the Galactic Railroad PLS) Man I just love this author so much. But I'm not really a poem person to begin with, so take this review with a grain of salt HAHA

Yosano Akiko Ability/Original Work: Thou Shalt Not Die

The only complete translation I could find is written in painfully archaic English, so I won't comment on the style HAHA. But I do think the original was just as pointed in its words and message; its anti-war sentiments and middle finger to the Japanese emperor and military (at the time) so characteristically Yosano-sensei. It's sad she'd support WW2 later on - come on sensei WHY

Personally, however, I prefer her shorter poems, specifically the ones from River of Stars. But I'm not really a poem person to begin with, so take this review with a grain of salt HAHA

Izumi Kyouka Ability: Demon Snow Original Work: Demon Pond

It's been a while since I've read a play, and perhaps that's why I had a hard time getting through the first half - either that or it was quite lackluster as most of the actual story happens in the second half. Its influences from folktales and traditional Japanese theater (i.e. kabuki and noh) are very apparent - I wish I could have seen it instead of read it because of that. I think this is the first work of Kyouka's that I actually liked (I've read some of his short stories and one of his other plays) so I'll definitely recommend this one if you want to start with this author. There's also a movie adaptation of it that I haven't watched yet (but I do plan to). I think it could be much better than just reading it as is because of the visuals and mood setting, but a review on that soon. Maybe.

Fukuzawa Yukichi Ability: All Men Are Created Equal Original Work: An Encouragement of Learning (Sec. 1-2)

I couldn't be bothered to read the whole thing, but the essence of the ability only comes from the first two sections (which I'll be reviewing).

It's an essay that imo serves as a good introduction to Fukuzawa's philosophy. His views and arguments are built primarily on morality with logic acting mostly as a way to expound on his points. It's interesting, nothing really new for a contemporary reader, but at least it gives a nice background on the changing environment during the early years of Meiji-era Japan. Of course there are personal biases here (specifically the one with China - one of the greatest criticisms against Fukuzawa, even though he was supposedly progressive for his time) but imo that reflects some views of many Japanese at the time - not that they're right, of course.

But what about our special non-gifted boi?

I guess let's look at what one of the episodes was based on instead lol

Edogawa Ranpo Episode: The Murder on D. Street (S01E05) Original Work: The Case on D. Hill

I will tell you now: they have almost NO similarities whatsoever. Doesn't mean it's bad tho...

Okay ngl I was pretty disappointed HAHA. It's the same type of disappointment I had with Poe's Murders on the Rue Morgue (which was ironically referenced in the story) but it at least had some sense to it. I blame myself for not seeing it coming tho, given that this story is very typical of Edogawa-sensei. If you do plan to read it, however, be warned that there are implicit (?) themes that may be uncomfortable for some readers (this warning applies to most of Edogawa-sensei's work not made specifically for children HAHA).

[yrsonpurpose]

Q: Name 5 animals you can find in the snow

Alex: polar bear, penguin, walrus, woolly mammoth and polar bear

Nicholas: woolly mammoth's are extinct