merryfortune

I've been busy lately... I started taking online college classes back in May, and I've been bitten by the Minecraft bug again, so I haven't had a lot of time to do much other than work, sleep, play minecraft, and skate by in my classes. 

What I've read, watched, played recently:

• My In Laws Are Obsessed With Me!: a webtoon I saw mentioned on meme, which could seem like a typical "protagonist goes back in time and gets revenge on those who wronged her" sort of story, but it's much more focused on the protagonist's relationship with the family that she marries in to, and unravelling the mystery of what exactly is behind the supernatural aspects of the story. 
• Blue Lock: Okay, I picked this back up again because of the IRL World Cup hype, and while it does deliver on action and strategy, I am increasingly disgusted by its philosophy that is an unsettlingly fascist flavored blend of social darwinism, authoritarianism, and nationalism. While it can be difficult for sports manga to avoid the idea that some people are superior, or nationalism when the setting goes global, the way that Blue Lock goes about its themes is increasingly off-putting in a way that feels more so than expected, especially when the manga pretty much ignores Latin America's power in the soccer world. The best striker in the world is French and plays for a German club. The Neo Egoist League is all European Countries: Germany, France, England, Spain, and... Italy? In the U-20 World Cup arc, Nigeria exists only for Blue Lock to dominate them 4-0, France is the favorite to win that are probably going to be the final boss, and the other country in the group stage that Blue Lock needs to beat is England. Brazil is mentioned once in passing as a soccer superpower, and Pele is mentioned once in passing as the GOAT, but other than that, the only countries that get any attention are Japan and the Neo-Egoist League countries, which are all European. Where are the African countries and where are the Latin American countries? Well, we had Nigeria, but again: they existed for the sake of asserting Blue Lock's power and strength. I really don't like this, especially paired with the way that Ego's philosophy is repeatedly endorsed by the narrative as correct and continually rewarded with victory. My opinion of Blue Lock as a series has tanked, even though I will reluctantly admit that it's still great at blending action and strategy in a way that I love. But it's hard to ignore everything else about it. 
• Isekai Office Worker: I finally finished this anime! It was still a lot of fun, I'm just really bad at getting around to things in a timely manner. I'm glad I watched it! I don't have a lot to say about it, but I like what it did. 
• Naruto Shippuden: Finally finished the Itachi Pursuit arc! The Jiraiya arc is up next, and I've been putting it off because ugh, Jiraiya. I think I'm going to read the manga for this arc, and then switch back to the anime for the Itachi vs Sasuke arc. I kind of like Sasuke more than I expected here? I expected him to be an asshole and a jerk, but he was pretty chill, being quietly self-assured of his own power and skill, and the lack of interaction with Naruto and Sakura probably did a lot to keep him from actively being an asshole. Oh, and the Kakashi Gaiden was great! I loved Obito and Kakashi's relationship, and I love the tragedy of what happened and how that's shaped Kakashi. It makes his nindo of "Ninja who break the rules are scum, but ninja who abandon their teammates are worse than scum" hit so much harder and feel so much more impactful to me. He was that affected by Obito! I still love Kakashi/Gai, but Kakashi/Obito is special to me now, too. Still don't ship Kakashi/Iruka. I just want to marinate in the Kakashi Gaiden episodes. There's so much there! I want all the AUs where Obito isn't left behind and they're all able to make it back to Konoha. 
• Minecraft: Playing on single player is less fun than playing on a server. With a server, it feels like my builds have purpose. Look at what I made! Isn't it cool? Last I mentioned, I was working on a monument base, but then I started making a trial chamber farm and was spending so much more time there than at my supposed base that I abandoned the monument and made the trial chamber my base. I finished it very quickly, and then because I was out in the middle of the ocean, I started building an oil rig platform above my base, but I struggled with it and got kind of bored. And then I saw Cortezerino's Hiroshima Castle Base tutorial, and knew that I wanted to build that. So I moved bases once again, and have started building that castle base. It's still very much in progress, but I have a storage system, a super smelter, a half-built brewing building, and most of a quadruple iron farm built. My plan to keep myself from getting bored here is to first focus on my base itself, which will likely take a while to build everything-- I'm currently stuck in a bottleneck of needing way more quartz and tuff than I've got, and I would say that I'm like 10% finished with the base as a whole-- and then in the nearby area create both a castle town and rural farmland filled with rice paddies. I think that will be enough to last me for a good long while. I also want to build Cortezerino's Italian vineyards and winery, but that might have to wait for the next season of the server. I committed to one theme already! I need to do that theme justice before doing a base in a whole other different style! I've also been getting inspiration from LEGO sets and LEGO knock off building sets; I designed a shop based on the LEGO Parisian Restaurant set and it looks pretty good! I've always been bad at building structures from nothing, but I'm decent enough at building a mimicry of something that already exists, whether it's a building in real life or a LEGO set. I'll post pictures when I'm done with it! It looks really nice I think. Oh, and I've also started modding Minecraft-- mostly utility type mods, I'm pretty much only interested in the vanilla game for gameplay, but I love miniHUD, and freecam, and having a world map to look at, and chat and locator bar heads, and litematica. I do have axiom and worldedit both downloaded, but I haven't used them in creative mode yet. I probably will eventually, though. Anyways, I've been having a blast. Minecraft really is the game of all time for me, I think.
• Hermitcraft season 11: I'm still keeping up with Hermitcraft! Other than Decked Out 3, I think I like what Mumbo is doing build-wise the most right now? I love his whole theme and idea for his megabuild, and it's so much fun to watch it develop. Hermitcraft does feel a little bit like it's in a lull right now, I suspect that one or two of the creators I watch are either occupied with other things or are struggling a bit for inspiration, but it's still always great to watch. 

Oh, I've also been keeping up with the FIFA world cup! It's hard not to with the TVs at work playing every game with the speakers turned on. My favorite match was Cabo Verde vs Argentina, it felt like Cabo Verde got soooo close to beating Argentina. They were taking shot after shot at Argentina's goal even at the end of Extra Time. It low key kind of made me want to play soccer? I did play for like one season when I was five years old, but I would be essentially a beginner-- I need to learn how to dribble, how to pass, how to receive, and how to strike. There are a lot of adult soccer leagues in my area, even casual ones, but I don't want to join those until I'm capable of the aforementioned basics. Unfortunately, it is so damn hard to find anywhere that holds beginner classes for adults. Everything is aimed at kids. It's slim pickings even for teenagers tbh, let alone actual adults over 18. I think I'm going to try and get private coaching lessons, but I'm nervous about that. I'm pretty out of shape, but the one thing I do have going for me is that I work on my feet, walking, for eight hours in a row four to five days a week, so I think I have the endurance to be able to handle a training session for my skill level? It'll be rough, but it's really hard for me to exercise for exercise's sake. Having a goal like getting better at soccer feels so much more motivational to me than abstract concepts like "good for my health" haha.