cashew: Nokoru looking drained with a steaming cup of tea and his fingers up in a victory sign (CCD // exhausted)

Was trying to learn 知我 and could not get the rhythms or the notes down. Finally looked up the sheet music and...fucking hell, the vocal part not only spans across two and half octaves with the highest note being a high A (barely in my range) while the lowest goes to a low G (out of my range), the measures also keep changing between 2/4, 4/4, and 6/4 mid-stanza.

My brain hurts. Also my throat is like dying.

And yes, I am trying to learn a new song to distract myself from the batshit going right now.

cashew: Sumomo acting like Sumomo (Default)

Question: so, like, does anyone actually believe the rule of law can still hold Trump administration (including Elon & his team of techbro muskrats) accountable?

If yes, how do you see this happening when the enforcement arm is under Trump administration's control?

If no, why is the only resistance coming in the form of lawsuits?

Like, is anyone paying attention that the court's rulings haven't actually stopped the illegal actions? USAID still can't get their funding. NOAA data remains deleted. "Fork in the Road" emails are still being sent out. Etc. The court orders are straight up being ignored.

I mean I know it's only been 3 weeks, but like...shouldn't all the people who were warning that Trump is a fascist and that this is going to lead to the fall of democracy have been making plans for exactly this scenario three months ago? I'm a bit tired of reading smug "I told you so" posts when none of y'all had enough conviction in your beliefs to have organized a counter-fascist operation.

Again, the other side is willing to use violence to put a fascist in power. What is the resistance willing to do to stop the fascist coup?

(As an outsider, I can't look away from the garbage fire that is the U.S. government at the moment.)

cashew: Kohane looking over her shoulder at a glowing piece of snow (xxxHolic // winter)

Elon Musk just took the keys to the US Treasury. How are Americans not invoking the 2nd Amendment right now? Are you seriously going to sit around waiting for the institution to crash?

Like, you guys realize Musk just committed a financial coup on the national piggy bank right? The federal government's spending is no longer controlled by Congress. Why aren't Americans panicking?

(Confused outside observer watching from overseas.)

cashew: Immortal's Delight item from Honkai: Star Rail game (Star Rail // Boba)

White American friends are deeply confused by Chinese New Year. Every year I feel like I have the same conversation to explain:

  1. When is Chinese New Year? (Answer: It depends. This year it's Jan 29.)

  2. How is Chinese New Year celebrated? (Answer: It depends.)

  3. Why are people celebrating every weekend? (Answer: Because it lasts a month and a half.)

  4. Why is it called the Spring Festival when it's not spring? (Answer: Because it's near spring according to the 24 solar terms.)

  5. Why is it spring when it's not near the spring equinox? (Answer: Because the 24 solar terms sets the spring equinox as mid-spring. Seasons are a social construct.)

  6. Is the 24 solar terms the Chinese calendar? (Answer: No. Chinese people use two different calendars because our traditions are old and weird.)

  7. Why is Chinese New Year always around Jan/Feb when it's a lunar new year. (Answer: Because it's a lunisolar calendar, not a lunar calendar.)

  8. Why are there so many names? (Answer: Because governments keep changing and also English translations aren't official translations and also because Chinese New Year celebrations existed before 1600BCE. Also for some reason Koreans wants to claim Chinese New Year as theirs so they refuse to call it Chinese New Year. I honestly don't understand why Koreans want to claim Chinese New Year. It's really baffling.)

And then there's the entire explanation of how a huge part of Chinese New Year is about bribing gods to write a positive year end review for the Jade Emperor so next year's fortune will be better. Because Chinese mythology is basically "heaven has the exact same bureaucracy as earth, but with more mysticism and magic and is multiple times more expensive". Folk religion is confusing AF because there's no canon, keeps changing and is also deeply secular. 🤣

cashew: Immortal's Delight item from Honkai: Star Rail game (Star Rail // Boba)

Yup, I think I have a new fandom. But on with the review.

TL;DR - Not as good as season 1 plot-wise, but character relationships have deepened. Super natural elements require a lot of suspension of disbelief, but thankfully not super important to the actual mystery. Solid 4 out of 5 stars.


The long version )

Overall, I'm not particularly fond of the relationship dynamic nearly as much, especially the expansion of a partnership into an ensemble cast. But personal preferences aside, the show is still a pretty fun experience. Fun enough that I am now reading all the fanfic as I wait for season three to air.

cashew: Sumomo acting like Sumomo (Default)

English subs here. Note, you have to be in (or VPN into) a non-US region to watch all the episodes.

TL;DR - Solid 4 stars out of 5. Some mystery details needed more explaining. Some of the supernatural stuff is hand-waved away as "illusions" without really explaining how the illusions are generated. Also, animals don't work like that.


Non-TL;DR version:

I have so many feels right now. )

So, to conclude, fun show, great duo partnership, one romantic couple developed in a way that wasn't annoying while another romantic couple felt forced into the show for no reason other than to pair the spare. The depiction of the court politics was unsympathetic to women in power, so it's a bit...rough. Worth a watch if you like to watch two guys growing and learning from each other.

cashew: Immortal's Delight item from Honkai: Star Rail game (Star Rail // Boba)

✅Tang Dynasty

✅Mystery

✅Military-Civil officials partnership

✅No romance

Although there's an age gap, because the co-leads are not written as a romantic couple they have a surprisingly equal relationship. A lot of bickering and grudging respect going on. And I am all for that. Thankfully, it seems the supernatural aspects of the mysteries are mostly caused by hallucinogens and not actual supernatural stuff. Meanwhile, a lot of criminal abuse of superstitions, which...well, given this is the 600-700s CE, so very appropriate.

Am only on episode 2 of the show but already sold on the partners. (I hear there's some kind of het romance that comes up later, but the main focus is the mystery, the romance just kinda dangles in the background.) Seeing as the show was popular enough that it got a second season, I'm super hopeful this is not going to disappoint. On top of everything else, the original novel was written in "faux encyclopedia" format, so the characters are all originally written for the show and so far I'm quite liking them. The language is a bit rough, the switch from archaic written grammar to modern vernacular is a bit jarring. But honestly, it's still making enough of an attempt to be "old" sounding that I'm willing to put up with it.

English subs of the first season is on YouTube.

Crossing fingers this does not disappoint! 🤞

cashew: Sumomo acting like Sumomo (Default)

A digital TTRPG with Eurogaming influences where you can play a bird wizard?

Yes please. Because apparently this game is also meant to be playable over discord and that means overseas gaming without needing to set up virtual tabletops, plus there's a single player mode. If this game works as intended, then it just might be the MMO replacement I'm looking for.

(Yes, I'm still writing drafts for my TTRPG. Yes, it's very much driven by wanting to play a game that has more creative freedom. Yes, the obsession with HSR and 王砚×兰珏 has distracted me, but also it's totally getting folded into my current draft of the sample adventure, because everything just makes me want to play an RPG set in fake Ancient China right now.)

cashew: dude with sunglasses looking confused (Misc // Haa?)

So, I tried watching a bit of Good Omens TV adaptation and...hm...well, it's a bit of mixed bag.

On the one hand, the show clearly realized the most entertaining aspect was Crowley×Aziraphale interaction, so there was significantly more of that, which is good.

On the other hand, going through "human history" with two White dudes as a demon and angel, presuming that the all events in the Bible is historical whilst making snide comments about said events, and depicting the infernal and celestial servants as "human" but also demonstrating the author has a clear idea of "good" vs. "evil" whilst trying to ruminate on the nature of "good" vs. "evil" but not acknowledging that morality and human judgement of good and evil stems from human understanding, thus not divine, just...feels a bit shallow.

In other words. The show both wants to make fun of the idea of "god as the moral arbiter" but also condemn revolutionaries for being too blood thirsty.

It's like... Guys (or rather, guy, since Neil Gaiman is solely in charge of the show's script), you can't have it both ways. Either you take a secular stance on morality, wherein you accept that morality is a social construct, therefore there is no authority and the judgement of whether an event is "good or evil" is dependent on the interest of the person doing the judging. OR you accept that there is some divine moral authority on what is good or bad and you kind of lose the ground for making fun of the Old Testament's morality because...well, divine authority and all that.

The other thing I'm a bit annoyed by is that despite the general theme of "good and evil are human constructs, demons and angels don't actually have moral compasses because they're just supernatural minions of two supernatural factions", the show continues to use over-played tropes when it comes to the depiction of Crowley and Aziraphale. One of the fun elements of the book version of these two characters is that they are not depicted as "good" or "evil" specifically. Yes, Crowley is uncaring of the damage he wreaks when pursuing his own goals. Yes, Aziraphale has a constant urge to help if he sees someone in need of assistance. But there's nothing inherently good or bad about what the two characters are doing. Neither Crowley nor Aziraphale have strong moral objections to good or bad things because of their feelings. When they object to doing a thing, it is because they are driven by obedience to their faction, not because the thing registers as "good" or "bad" on an emotional level.

However, in the show, both demon and angel have a clear and agreed upon standard for "good" vs "evil". Demons merely do evil while angels do good. Which might have been fine if the subjects involved were cut and dry events like "help a frail old lady across the street" or "burn people alive for shits and giggles". But when it comes to events such as peasant uprising against the monarchy because the peasants are dying by droves under the mismanagement of the aristocracy... "Good" and "evil" are just such weak concepts when dealing with the complexity of social power struggles and equitable distribution of resources.

In other words, I find Good Omens TV show about as a mixed bag as the book but for very different reasons.

cashew: Kamui holding a bunch of books (X // even heroes read)

Grading explained:

A - Loved it. Want to re-read. Will recommend.

B - Pretty happy about reading it. No huge urge to re-read. Might recommend.

C - It's fine. Won't recommend.

D - Technically competent. Waste of time to read. Won't recommend.

F - Technically incompetent. Won't recommend.


With that out of the way, tl;dr - Good Omens, grade C.

Details )

I'm genuinely confused by people who rank Good Omens as their favorite book of all time. The book seems solidly mediocre: the writing is technically competent and the language is snappy, but there's nothing particular outstanding about it.

July 2025

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