halfcactus

1.
snowflake_challenge #6: Share your favourite piece of original canon.
I don't have a favorite anything anymore since I have a very short memory and tend to move on from interests... But here's a list of favorites from the last five years:

the movie Legend of Hei: there's supposed to be a sequel in the works and I'm worried Xiao Hei will spend less time in his cat form in it. I think his human form is cute too but I have cat bias. XD

the manga Witch Hat Atelier: the art, design, and paneling are insanely good, and I cried almost every volume. Not very sure the anime format is for me but I'm excited for it nonetheless!

the baihe youth comic 她們的故事 Their Story: Found out recently that there's some controversy(?) around it, but I still love it and it continues to be a comfort reread.

the Yoruneko comics, which are about the daily (well, nightly) life of a cat owner: this is also a comfort read and the main reason I still check Twitter, as the artist posts there. There's an animated series too.

the webtoon Like Wind on a Dry Branch: I paused at around 100 chapters in (it's ongoing with 200+ chapters), but it was the most invested I was in a canon in a while, a rare occurrence. It has some of my fav tropes too, ie. hurt/comfort and demons raising a human child :'D

I guess it's easier to say that my favorite medium is comics these days... I need to relearn how to read books without illustrations. ^^;


2.
Vocabulary list from the first chapter of 全宇宙最后一只猫 The Last Cat in the Universe (which I'm dropping because I'm looking for shorter or maybe less webnovel-y reads):


3.
Recent bookmarks:

Public Domain Archive: you can filter by style, time period, and tag!

Ellipsus: supposedly a Google Docs alternative.

Challenge #7: Make a list of fannish and/or creative resources.

Cfandom people are always looking for Chinese learning resources, so here is a list (with other links thrown in):
( Read more... )


Challenge #8 Talk about a current fannish project (fic, art, vid, crochet, funko pop village) (that you are creating or enjoying)
Not exactly fannish, but I'm trying to maintain a journal—and trying to keep reading cnovels so I have content to put on my journal (vocabulary lists). XD I meant to finish My Five Elements Lack You before LNY but I've been to preoccupied to sit down and read, oops.

And someone did an animatic of a Modu audiodrama skit (parody of a viral Korean video/meme) I subtitled/translated, though as usual, I can't look at my old stuff without critiquing them and wanting to claw out my face.

Audio with soft subs:



Animatic by liss:



Challenge #9: Rec Us Your Newest Thing.
Not really a "thing", but, well, my latest dog obsession is Manyu and only Manyu!!! I now understand solo/celeb stans because I felt a wave of crushing disappointment when her owner posted a photo of her little brother... Like, cute doggo, but that's not my baby :( :( :( I hope she's genuinely being treated well by her owners because she seems like such a sweet baby and I love her little face sooooo much.

I also started Fire Emblem: Three Houses last week + am trying to do Yoga with Adriene's January 30-day challenge without following her timeline, ie. just doing a video whenever I feel like it. I don't usually vibe with her videos but this series actually looks beneficial for my back, with different core focuses and an average video length of 18-20 minutes. We'll see if I can make it to the end! (I'm at Day 6 lol)


Challenge #10: Five Things
Five recent reads/watches (or attempts to):

Dungeon Meshi anime: fantasy anime about experiencing the cycle of life by cooking in the dungeon. Updates every Thursday, and it was a nice weekly unwinding ritual for 2 weeks, until I fell into the FE3H pit. I didn't make it very far into the manga, so I'm excited to see the rest of the story in the anime! IMO ep1 flew by too fast for the food and comedy scenes to be truly done justice, but ep2 was a bit smoother. I expect it to find its groove as it goes—even the manga took a couple of volumes to pick up momentum.

Frieren: another fantasy anime, one about mortality, outliving the people you love, and carrying the parts they left behind on your journey. I only got to see maybe 1.5 eps and the grief and pre-grief hit me pretty hard so I'm not super sure this is for me. It's very wholesome and soothing otherwise! The basic premise is life after saving the world.

I Told Sunset About You: 5-episode Thai BL drama, one that I remember a non-fandom friend recommending a few years back, long before the sequel existed. I think I only made it through half an ep because I couldn't multitask to it? XD But production values are very promising, and characters seem to be Thai Chinese, which is interesting to me!

長安三萬里 Chang'an (2023): Just watched this weekend, and will try to write about it at some point lol. tl;dr - This is a 3/5 movie for me.

The 2023 Hugo nomination statistics have finally been released – and we have questions: stats and discussion roundup.