Was in the mood to watch a movie, so I chose one I'd never heard of before that was on Prime and went in entire blind (save for the summary).

The Painted (2024) promised haunted paintings, and you know what? I enjoyed it. I really liked it by the end despite some flaws, but I'm considering it a win all the same.

I'm not in the mood to do a full review, so here's some bullet points, starting with the stuff I didn't like so I can gush about the good stuff later. There are spoilers, but I'll try to keep them vague. Nothing in this film strikes me as something a spoiler would ruin, so there's that, too. Lol.

Let's go.

The Less Great Stuff

• Plot's a mess. The idea, the concepts, and all that is great, but the way the information is presented could have been better.
• Info dumping. This movie has a lot of blatant moments where Evelyn (the lead) or a random expert just dumps information, and while I can sort of see why that ends up happening, it's still a shame based on everything else going on.

Can Go Either Way

• The Effects. I'm torn on the effects. I think that the CGI looks really good, because they sort of go for a more intentional fake looking effect? The painting effects in particular look really good, and are definitely uncomfortable in a Trypophobia way with the textures, but it gets really repetitive. The paint sequences can sometimes overstay their welcome a handful of seconds (that could have been better spent giving more room for less info dumping).
• This film likes topless women. Lol. You should take a shot every time you see a set of nude breasts whether in naughty mags or the paintings. I feel a pinch prudish pointing this out, but it started to feel a little gratuitous after a while.
• A few scares are cheesy. I don't mind this so much, but a couple of them definitely missed--noticeable when so many are great.

The Great

• Adam. I started this moving going "Did they go out of their way to make this man unlikeable?" but he had actual character development and I was getting teary eyed over him by the end. Great freaking job, movie.
• The casting. I liked everyone in the film. The whole family feels real and you can tell that they all love each other under the bickering and stress. Even Adam at his worst in the earlier parts of the film clearly loved and would do anything for his kids, so you know what? Good stuff.
• I like the twist on the Haunted House genre. This family spends a couple nights in the house and when the hauntings start...they leave. LOL. They get their asses out of that house and the plot follows them home. I love that.
• A lot of the painting moments are genuinely well framed and creepy. Some stand outs are a few subtle movements and the hair cutting sequences. The movie presents some of the scares very matter of fact. The paintings just...move. On screen. No sound effects. They're just alive and it's bright and in the daytime.
• Adam researching. I kid you not one of the best moments in the entire film is when Adam goes "I'll take care of this" in a threatening voice that implies violence and then he goes to the library to research and I cackled at that twist. It played up the horror trope of researching demonology in the middle of the film, but gave it to the absolute last person you'd expect.
• The contrast of the painting ceremony in the beginning of the film in the rich mansion with items clearly tailored for it and the rushed ceremony at the end in the poorer family home, with everything cobbled together with what they had. A table of mismatched candles in their kitchen with tearing wallpaper was so. Freaking. Good.
• I love the ending of this film. I don't care what anyone else says. I think it had just the right amount of action, tension, anxiety, and feelings.
• The cinematography and framing are all well done. It's a good looking movie.

And that's what I've go. I went in blind, had a fun time, and I'd recommend it to others. :D

 Was going to post this on Bsky/Mastodon but then remembered I have a Dreamwidth for posting things I want to say publicly but maybe not on bigger platforms. Lol.

The Thought:
Hearing someone say that it's all Democrats that are oligarchs and that they only hate DOGE bc they found the corruption is soul crushing.

 Things I have learned about myself: Keeping a planner of some sort is good for me.

Things I have also learned about myself: I really struggle keeping up with them.

Tried a digital task manager Habitca. Worked for a  bit, and stopped checking it.

Tried a Bullet Journal. The ability to push tasks forward if I didn't do them? Great system. I'm notorious for writing things down I need to do and then not doing them, but by the fifth time I write it down again, I'm more likely to maybe do it. Finishing one task out of ten is still one task done.

Bullet Journal wasn't great for planning ahead though; I never checked the "Future" logs to write things in.

Moved into a planner with dates so I could write in future appointments on the date that they happen.

Worked great.

Stopped checking it.

I have plans to invest in an Agendio planner later this year when my current journal style planner is done, but now I'm like "Will I stop checking that too?" 

So I thought that maybe I should integrate a digital planner again? But I really failed at Habitica and that was a very nice little to-do list app. But it also wasn't a *planner* were I could keep track of dates and appointments.

All this to say is I probably need to change something to force myself to actually look at my freaking planners and use them but I have no idea how to make myself do that.

I am still looking into digital apps to use as a companion to the paper journal. Or to replace it.

I don't now. Lol. 

(I would have posted this in the actual journal/planners community but I realized it's way too venty/rambling.XD)

As I was reading through the classic Wiglaf and Mordred comic to edit and adjust for the reboot, I noticed that some jokes just...didn't hit like they did back in the early 2000's -- specifically all of the early Driver jokes.

I've already decided to heavily rework most of those jokes, but it has had me thinking about Driver and her gender as it appears in WaM.

As a character, Driver was inspired by three major factors in her creation:

1. A female friend I knew in high school that was continuially mistaken for a man.
2. A female friend in college that hated skirts/dresses and preferred to wear more masculine clothing.
3. I thought it would be funny to have a genderswapped version of a popular crossdressing joke: "Wow, she's hot!" "That's a man, dude." "WHAT?"

As such, Driver is a character that exclusively identifies as a woman, but is 100% male passing and often mistaken as a man.

She has a low, rough voice and a very flat chest with no hips. She wears male clothing 80% of the time, which adds to how easily she is mistaken for a man in the comic (and by readers, too, lol--but that's only fair considering how many people think Wiglaf is a girl at first sight).

If Driver were to be cast with a live actor, I'd want it to either be a man or someone male passing to drive that point home.*



That all isn't to say she's exclusively masc presenting, however--Driver also enjoys wearing dresses and being feminine on special occassions.

She is a character who gets the best of both worlds on that front.



During the run of WaM, many readers often asked if Driver was a transwoman (and now, I can see people asking if she's Non-Binary).

The answer has almost always been "If you see her that way, I don't mind the headcanons, but Driver is a cis woman canonically."

She was created as representation for the ladies who aren't gender conforming or never developed as feminine as their peers.

That said, with this modern climate, I can see how people would crave a gender non conforming transwoman in their media, but if I were to write that sort of character, it would be an entirely new person. Driver's specific brand of representation has always been important to me and a select few readers.

All that said and done, I now get to figure out how to get all that across without resorting to Wiglaf freaking out that Driver is actually a woman when he meets her. Lol.

Thankfully I've got a little time yet. I forgot how long it actaully took to introduce the final member of the WaM main character trio during the initital story and I'm itching to get Driver back in there!

Thanks for listening to my musing and if you don't want to wait for Driver in the reboot, the classic comic is still there and waiting. ;D

---

*It's fun having more language to describe Driver, btw. When she was created, "Girl that looks and sounds like a man" was the best that I had--now I can use language like "Gender non-conforming cis woman who is male passing." More of a mouthful, but more accurate and specific at least. Lol.

Hello! While I was advertising Fables.pro on another site, someone wished to know more about it--the pros and cons and all that good stuff. Having been lucky enough to have participated in the Beta and as someone still using the site, I'm glad to help share and encourage others to give it a chance!

Without further ado - let's get into it!

Note: Screenshots will be at the very end.

Creator Forward (Why I Love It There)

The Fables Team loves comics and creators. It's seen in every inch of both the Discord and their own work. They want this site to succeed and we can all see them hard at work to make it happen.

Creators who post there also share in ad revenue, which is a definite plus in my book. It's one of the few sites that I Whitelist from my Ad Blocker.

They also go the extra mile to protect their NSFW creators, by providing a separated site so that those users can benefit from ads as well (albeit with its own hiccups since adult ads are...adult ads).

Their Promise to Creators won me over when I considered joining the site, and I can see that they're going to hold true.

( Read more... )

I've joined Mastodon if anyone else is there. Lol.

Trying not to have all my social media eggs in one basket.

I've been reading Wiglaf and Mordred again to remind myself of all the characters and take notes (I started a character bible in Ellipsus lol), and I remembered that Wiglaf used to mumble and talk to people in Swedish, becuase that was his first language and it's the default one he goes to when he's alone or being snarky.

At the time, I just used online translators and a kind reader used to correct things. Eventually, that reader gave me their email and I could send them things I wanted translated.

Due to time, and not ill will, I have lost track with that person and no longer have a translator for my comic.

At first, I was like "This is fine. I have years worth of translations already done."

And then I was like "I want to add something here..."

So now I'm asking the internet at large if anyone speaks Swedish and would like to help me translate. *throws confetti*

Tumblr has introduced communities to their blogging platform and I'm staring at them like: I've failed at joining and particpating in communities on Dreamwidth, which are set up infinitely better and more familiar because I remember how they work from before Livejournal censored everything.

What makes you think I'm going to use these on Tumblr?

Get rid of that button at the bottom of my app. I'm not clicking it. XD

Also, it doesn't look all that much different from Tags if I'm being perfectly honest. So I'm even more confused why its there.

This mini vent has been brought to you by a person who wants to use communities here more but keeps being shy.  LOL.

I've used my Clever Fox Daily Undated Planner for one day. That's enough to have initial thoughts, right?

Pros:

• I am in love with the thick paper. I feel like I could use permanent marker and it wouldn't show through. Makes for a really thick book, but that's fine.
• I like the Weekly Goal set up page and the Weekly review at the end. Especially with the little built in habit tracker. I really failed at habit tracking on the Bujo, but being able to change what habbit I want to focus on each week and only tracking seven days makes it more manageable.
• I mostly like the Daily page layouts, particularly the "Most important task" and regular to-do list placements.

Cons:

• I have so many blank daily pages I have no idea what to do with because each blank month has to be set up for (5) weeks, and b/c I wanted to keep weeks together, so I only have like three weeks... (Ex. A week that as the end of one month and the start of another:  26, 27, 28, 1, 2, 3, 4).
• I don't know what to do with these blank pages. I know if I had a dated journal it wouldn't be a problem, but I just HAD to start at the end of the year instead of waiting until January. *throws confetti for me*
• I don't really  need all the goal setting stuff for the year. I'm attempting to use it, but I'd rather have note pages to be honest.
• The times only got from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. So if I want to book anything after 9 p.m., I'm going to be annoyed it doesn't fit onto its time block. I don't do a LOT of things after 9 p.m., but it could happen. A 7 to midnight would be better. Lol.

That about sums up my feelings so far. I don't know if I'll stick with Clever Fox for the full six months this planner covers, but I want to at least use it for two months to get my money's worth.

Do you have a favorite undated planner? Or a favorite planner in general that might make one?

I've had a love hate relationship with my original writing and anxiety since I published my first novel in 2012.

I love my characters and stories, but man does anxiety hit me in a way with my original stuff that it doesn't with fanfiction. The end result of that, is when I start getting anxious...I just write fanfic instead and that leaves me with a lot of series with no book two and unfinished novels galore.

Which in and of itself causes more anxiety. XD

So, in a step to combat that just a little bit, I've joined Ellipsus.com - which is a collaborative, online writing app. It's main goal is to give you a place to write that has in depth collaborative tools, such as for co-writing, beta reading, and full on editing.

Writing is much easier with someone else, so I hope I actually use the tool to get something done (or at the very least help by beta reading someone else's work).

The site is also VERY fanfiction friendly and has an Export to AO3 tool. Which is great!

Still waiting on chapter divisions though. At the moment, everything is in a single large work which isn't super great for many things even if there is an outline tool that tracks headers. Ha ha ha.

Is anyone else using Ellipsus? Do you like it? Let me know! :D