Well, it looks like the Hog Pit is heating up again, so I'm prepared with some of the manliest liquor alive:
@WTFE said in RL things I love:
Well, it looks like the Hog Pit is heating up again
I am unbelievably glad, RL, that I unsubscribed from it. So much self-induced rancor fading away like mist.
My collection of weird playing cards progresses apace.
Bog-standard western cards with a unique flare to the shape.
These Korean knock-offs of Japanese "flower cards" are cutting into Nintendo's profits in a miniscule way.
@WTFE said in RL things I love:
These Korean knock-offs of Japanese "flower cards" are cutting into Nintendo's profits in a miniscule way.
Does Nintendo even still make these?
MET Changeling the Dreaming's alpha dropped.
I get to play in a playtest of it tomorrow.
I AM EXCITE I HAVEN"T GOTTEN TO ACTUALLY PLAY LARP IN A LONG TIME.
Also making my first in a long time Dreaming PC. A Scathach Sidhe who is a police detective in mortal existence and a 'defender of the people' as a Fae.
And now my Nintendo flower cards have arrived.
Nintendo doesn't fuck around with security features for such a trivial thing.
I don't find these as interesting, nor as well-made as the far cheaper Korean clones.
(Which are made by a Japanese company. In Korea. For sale to Koreans. Because fuck you, that's why.)
How much cheaper? Well, I got these at an incredible discount. I can't rationalize buying them at regular price, but at this discount, I could afford them. They were still almost double the price of the Korean clones.
Which is really weird because they're FAR lower grade, IMO, than the Korean ones. The Korean ones are made from a weird PVC-like material that's thick and stiff and the pictures appear to be also plastic sheeting bonded to the cards (and all the way to the edge). They're waterproof and damned near indestructible. The Nintendo ones feel like a plastic core that's both heavier than the Korean version, yet not as durable-seeming. The pictures are paper stock glued to the underlying card, then the black backing is glued on and wrapped around the edges. They do not feel indestructible. They feel, in fact, like the pictures will wear off with relatively small amounts of use when compared to the Korean ones.
Of course I needed the rules translated. And the only translation I could get on paper was to either Korean (with the Korean set, duh!) or to Chinese as here.
I can get them from the 'net too, obviously, but it helps to have that chart of cards and their point values even if I can't read the text comfortably.
I'd never heard of these before, so I was looking at it. Is it actually a knock-off or a variant?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanafuda
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go-Stop - this says November/December are swapped around for the variant deck/game.
The Nintendo ones are the original "authentic" (whatever that means) flower cards. The ones I'm calling knock-offs are the Korean variant of them (although produced by a Japanese company ... in Korea). I'm calling them knock-offs because the art is VERY suspiciously similar right down to the specific poses of specific critters on them. Given the complexity of images on the cards I would have expected more variance than I saw.
Or, maybe, I just read too much into things. One of the two.
One of the clearly visible differences is that the Korean deck has a few extras, obviously intended as extensions. (Like jokers in poker decks.)
So, when I got home I put my two flower deck cards side by side and took some pictures. These are arranged from January to December (using Japanese ordering):
Black borders are the Nintendo cards. First four months are arranged thusly:
| Jan | Mar |
| Jan | Mar |
| Feb | Apr |
| Feb | Apr |
The rest are arranged in column pairs from left to right.
Why did I orient the first four months differently? Because fuck you, that's why. (Well, that and I may have gotten distracted during the process and when I got back I continued with the cards oriented the other way… One of the two.)
I'd misremembered the nature of the extras. In the Korean deck there's six extra completely blank cards. They have no extra markings of any kind. Just a red border around a white space.
The Nintendo cards are notably better designed. It's always amazing how much little touches can make night-and-day differences.
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos
@Thenomain said in RL things I love:
The Nintendo cards are notably better designed. It's always amazing how much little touches can make night-and-day differences.
It's like when you see the '$500 vs. $100' tattoos. The depth of detail.
"Dad! Please get me a butt mirror so I can see my buttcrack!"
Dude I am so excited to stand up and give a super embarrassing toast at this kid's wedding someday.
So I had something made for me a while back, and while it's a lovely pendant, it was attached to a rather naff little bracelet more as an illustration of what kind of thing you could use, but not necessarily intended for actual use. (The pendant is way too big and heavy to be dangling off a wrist.) The real purpose of the thing is to hang off the end of a traditional necklace of 108 prayer beads.
So I got myself one of those.
I actually liked the look of the wooden beads used in the bracelet that came with the pendant, so I got wooden beads for the basis of my experiment. (And the wooden beads were far cheaper than bodhi seeds, rattan seeds, turquoise beads, etc. anyway, so, you know, practicality. Cinnabar was cheaper, but bright red wasn't right for this piece.) The wood in question is a strange local wood called Gold Phoebe which photographs cannot do justice to: the wood has a distinct golden sheen in its grain that shimmers in moving light. (Ever seen mica? Or tiger-eye stones? Similar in effect.)
Now the necklace/bracelet, because of that latter part after the slash, comes on stretchy cord. Which is great as a bracelet and fine as a necklace provided you don't hang a heavy pendant off of it. Which I was doing. So I had to snip the string and capture all the beads. Then I had to get brown beading cord and manually restring the beads before tying the whole concoction to the pendant.
Stringing 108 wooden beads when you…
…is somewhat of an adventure.
Used bookstores. Not that I don't love bookstores of any kind, but there's just a special place in my cold, dark, shriveled little heart for crowded shelves full of books that range from well-loved to never-read. And then I find something really obscure that I totally love and it's like I'm looking across the book at the previous owner and putting a finger to my lips like, "Ssh! It'll just be our secret."
Two things had me ugly crying in the car yesterday. Sorry, this is really long.
I need to preface this by saying that my eldest kid came out to us as genderqueer 4 years ago, and trans 2 years ago. I think it was his way of softening the perceived blow. Luckily for us we have always had a very diverse group of friends so we were not afraid of /him/...just other people outside of our bubble, and extended family. We decided to proceed with coming out at his directed pace.
Junior high was very difficult. The administration at his school was not super friendly even to gay students, so his decision was to be out as queer, but not transgender. Over those two years I saw my quirky teen turn into someone who rarely smiled, was quiet even amongst close friends, grades plummeting, anxiety skyrocketing. There is surprisingly not a whole lot of support for trans youth that's accessible in our area, but we found bits and pieces and he finally got together a local face to face network of support, friends at all stages, and adults who have been there too.
So this year at his first year of local high school, he decided to be totally out at school and in the community (not yet extended far away and very religious and bigoted family). I have my child back, finally. I can't believe how much lighter and freer in the world he is, though of course there is pushback too.
Anyway--clothes shopping used to be fun for him ages ago but he's had some horrible experiences and comments when he was still semi-closeted in community. He's been hiding in dad's hand me downs and tees when this is our one kid that really loves fashion and always has. He asked his girlfriend to homecoming though and she wanted to wear a semiformal dress, so--suit shopping.
But he...doesn't fit the mold for most menswear to say the least, his dad is 50 and hasn't worn even business casual for like 20 years at this point, and I have the men's fashion sense of a hole in the ground.
So we went to an upscale department store. And I found the youngest most hipster looking staff person there on the sportswear section and asked him to help. He did not look at my son weirdly, or ask if we were in the right section or act overly fawning or condescending. Instead he asked my son if he had a picture of his date's outfit and let's get this done. He put together a great perfect outfit, educated my son about the kinds of brands/styles that would fit and look best for his body, etc. when we were done my son could not stop grinning or looking in the mirror, and that is the first time I'd seen that happen since he was my very little girl putting together outfits from the dress up box and parading in glee.
I almost lost it in the fitting room lounge. And yes, I am writing a handwritten card to that lovely man so I can bring it over to the store later. I just burst into tears after every other line so I'm giving myself the weekend. Jesus Christ menswear is expensive but it was worth every penny and I hope he works on commission!
Second, with less of a story, is seeing the delight on my son's gf's face when she saw his outfit, and they let me take a picture before running off arm in arm to join their waiting group of friends. She's a wonderful kiddo that we've known for years. And when I picked them up after the dance to drop off home, hearing them laugh and tell me excitedly about what went on and how much fun they had--I almost lost it again. For at least a little while longer, my baby is still safe in our little community bubble we've built.
Ally Steinfeld has been on my mind all weekend. There are people out there who would happily murder and mutilate my son because of who he is, to say nothing of the drive to take away his personhood even in our state and federally.
But at least for a little while longer he can live in this bubble of fiercely protective friends, church community (we are UUs), and allies. And my tears yesterday were ones of joy and gratefulness.
Beijing roast duck pizza is apparently a thing. How do I know? I had it today.
@WTFE I feel THIS is when a picture is needed. Either of the pizza, or your satisfied face after eating it. What other toppings?
Sadly I lacked the presence of mind to whip out the phone before the hordes I was with (affectionately referred to as "my family") descended on the pizza leaving it a tattered and torn mess.
For toppings: well, it had the duck (looked more like duck scraps to me, compressed together), the sweet bean sauce, the shredded spring onion and cucumbers all with mozarella cheese scattered on top. This should not have worked. It did. And it worked well. I was expecting to taste it and flee the restaurant screaming in horror. I instead mourned the fact we only got a medium of that one.
I ... would try that, and I am not one for duck. One, large, to go please?
My collection of weird playing cards progresses apace.
Bog-standard western cards with a unique flare to the shape.
These Korean knock-offs of Japanese "flower cards" are cutting into Nintendo's profits in a miniscule way.
