It's been a while. This may be the longest I've ever gone without posting anything. I may get around to telling people about my 2020 some day. Or not. It's not been swell.

I'm still employed. The ag services and supply company I worked/work for is technically out of business, now; but me and one other guy are both still working here helping close things down and get the work done that we still have obligations to do. But as there's no money coming in for most of this work, it's kind of a week-to-week thing. Personally, we're planning on moving out of Texas as soon as we can, but don't have a destination in mind, yet.

I've been playing World of Warships again, after NOT playing it for something like two years. I was shocked to find that one of my favorite ships, Kirov, had been removed from the game and turned into a premium (I got it for free, technically). Sure, Kirov was bit broken if you knew how to play it (as a highly mobile railway gun). Just sit in the back, learn how to long-range target, and burn everything down. I looked at missions to see if they had ever opened things up to lower tier ships and discovered one mission chain AND the current dockyard mission could be accomplished with T5 and higher ships, in co-op battles. T5 was my current highest tier, except for the Normandie, which I had received for free for...something. A couple of years ago. I never played it.

So, I got busy on those, and ran the missions until I hit the point that they required either carriers (which I hadn't been messing with) or T8 ships. Since I was just starting to get T6 ships, I knew it would be a while until I could finish the mission. On to Dockyard missions. You can buy 2 levels of the dockyard missions, but from what I could tell you could just grind all of them out. The way the purchase was worded, you could only buy the first few levels *anyway*, so I decided to just grind it out. I made it to level 18, and realized I had received all the level completion tokens that were available. You HAVE to buy two levels. In effect, you HAVE to buy the ship you build. I think it's at a relative discount, but still. So I have a T8 Cruiser sitting there waiting to be bought. Disappointed.

While I was doing all that, Wargaming started the American Battleships event. I had no idea what it was for, or how it worked, but it looked like you could do missions and accomplish specific goals, just like the other events, so I was completing those, as well. They pay American Tokens, among other things, and there is a tiered list of camouflages and signals you can buy with them. So last night I made it to the last two missions of the final tier, with 2 days left to go in the event. The missions are usually two part, with an option. The two missions left, only one of which I had to finish, where a destroyer-specific set and a cruiser-specific set. Because I thought I had to finish both, I decided to work on the cruiser mission, because I have the fewest T5 and higher cruisers. The options were to either receive 20 million HP in damage using ANY T5 and higher ship (which would take me days to achieve) or do 50,000 damage in a T5 or higher cruiser with torpedoes only in one battle. I do this all the time with destroyers, but T5 cruisers A) aren't made for brawling, and B) usually don't have good torpedo options. My one T6 cruiser, Aoba, has good torps but is designed for AA use, and that's what I have it built up for (if there's an enemy carrier, I get in the line of fire and pick up 20,000 to 30,000 AA damage). The Italian and British T5s are gunships, although the British single-launch capability can cause some wonderful close-range kills. The French T5 is highly visible, so you usually have to wait for the crowd to disperse before you enter the fight, and even then you have to dodge constantly. The Russian T5s are flamethrowers (as mentioned). That leaves the German cruiser, the American cruiser, and the Japanese cruiser, all of which are capable multi-role cruisers.

Anyway, it took about 45 battles, but I finally got the one-game achievement with the Konigsberg. It was still luck; because of the time of year, and all the events, battles have been loaded up with people instead of bots, which means if you're competent and so are a couple of other people, you're not going to get more than your fair share. And if they're NOT competent, then you'll probably be crippled by a teammate, or suddenly realize you're YOLO'ing when you thought you were part of a pincer or a feint.

The reward was finishing the Battleship event, and a T8 Kansas. It's a paper ship, something that existed as an idea to upgrade the Colorado class and continue the Standard battleship design rather than switch to fast battleships. It's basically an Iowa-class's armament stuck on a Colorado class's hull. How they justify Mark 7 rifles on a ship that would have received Mark 6 rifles by every reasonable expectation is beyond me, but this is Wargaming. The German carrier line is entirely made up, and 3 of the 4 ships are variations of the Graf Zeppelin. The Russian Battleship line after T4 is based entirely on an alleged bid request for armored cruisers for the Baltic Fleet made pre-WW1.

But, it's a small victory, and I'll take it.

So...my Covid-19 quarantine allowed me to do some really fun things and start streaming and some really creative stuff, and then I had to go back to work.

At the worst time of the year.

And I had a little mental episode this week where I had to shut down for about 6 hours and get my emotional priorities sorted out, and figure out how to extend that into the physical space.

But I still have to figure out how to get back to doing the creative stuff I was really enjoying, because I come every day emotionally drained still, and needing a lot of chill time to get back to normal and take all the emotional armor down.

I did finally get the network fixed. After a couple weeks of streaming, I knew I was having some bandwidth issues, so I ordered a new router and some other new parts to replace the cheap stuff we had been running for years. And the Belkin router I got did this weird thing where it randomly reset the incoming internet connection, making streaming and MMORPGs impossible.

Got that router replaced and it's all working now, but now I'm working through the emotional stuff and just can't quite get the energy back up to be creative, despite a huge pile of stuff just sitting here ready to go.

And that's without getting into how absolutely horrible people around here are being in Covid-19 Denial. I want out of this state so bad. Supposedly the rest of the state isn't like this, according to a lot of people I've talked to online...just this area. But the state government isn't helping things, and is actively and admittedly mis-reporting Covid-19 cases and deaths. And so we are trying to figure out how to get out of here and move somewhere marginally more reasonable.

So that's it. That's why everything I was doing suddenly stopped several weeks ago.

Annnd....I guess that's it, for now.

Final model I'm building:

The second model I've been working on:

What I've been doing since last Friday:

It's been SO LONG since I even wanted to say that.

[some edits and corrections based on input from comments]

Disney has done Star Wars justice.


Finally.


You want shocking? Get on YouTube and search for The Mandalorian reviews and commentaries. There are a lot of people calling it bad, garbage, more of the same Disney BS. But many, many more people, including a lot of people who have despised everything Disney has done with Star Wars, like it. A lot of them REALLY like it.

I do, too. It's not without flaws, many of which arise from its format. Sometimes you gotta skip some development when you're trying to tell a story in 30 minutes. And frequently, they could have written those bits better than they did. Hey, Disney is NEW at trying to do Star Wars right, but the effort is SO good here, I'm willing to cut them that bit of slack.

You want to know what there isn't? Bizarrely? Nit-picks. OK, yes, there ARE plenty of things to nit-pick. But let me draw a picture for you.

Solo (the movie) was *fine*. It wasn't really good, it had some good bits in it, it was bad in many places, but it was fine. The worst thing Solo did was all the little things that didn't make sense or were completely unnecessary. Things in the plot, details in just about every single scene, that were just a little problematic. Contradictory. Didn't make sense. Too much "look at the Star Wars!" going on. Nit-picks, in other words, more than an overall "just a bad movie".

The Mandalorian has VERY little of that. Even moments that could be described as "look at the Star Wars!" are subtler. Held done and told to hush, just sit there. People will notice, if it's worth noticing. There's one shot in the first episode that they really linger on longer than they needed to, and; while it's played for laughs, it seems to also have been done mainly as a "remember this?" moment. Probably some I didn't really notice...WHICH IS GOOD.

Another production choice, that some have complained about, that I think HELPS, is that there is very little dialogue. What IS there is sometimes perfect...sometimes it's stilted and wooden. Much like a George Lucas production. The Mandalorian doesn't talk much, and doesn't encourage it in others. That was a SMART CHOICE. Don't talk it out. Look, don't show. As is, the show has received praise for lavish, well-done visuals; praise that is deserved. Except for one planet, you never know where you are. There is one subtitled scene, which is used specifically to set up a dramatic point. No planets are given names so that you can connect them to lore. There is a desert world that is almost certainly Tatooine, but it's not named. It doesn't NEED to be named, because where The Mandalorian is is not important to the story.

On the left: not a Mandalorian On the right: The Mandalorian

Dropped:

Kandagawa Jet Girls - I don't like MoeSexy and there just wasn't enough story in this for me. Would really love know what Steven Den Beste would have thought of this series.

Rifle Is Beautiful - Just too laid back. This works for a lot of people, and I suspect the 4-koma comic is much more enjoyable. Stretching it out into something more plot-centric makes it seem...awfully shallow. And realizing it was light gun shooting instead of firearm otaku-ism was a bit of a let down.

DNF:

XL-Joushi - Still no English sub. I translated the first few minutes of the first episode myself, but it's an extremely tedious process for me since I have to look up every word and cross reference meanings. That is to say, I gave up.

Continuing:

Azur Lane - Dramatic with lots of action, and shipgirls, although criticism for a simple and derivative story is certainly deserved. As is criticism for under- budget animation in action scenes. But USS Enterprise CV-6 is a Big Damn Hero, and that's really all I need to enjoy this. And the slowly growing anticipation that Laffey is going to release her self-imposed limiter at some point go F****** BERSERK.

Chuubyou Gekihatsu Boy - Borderline. It got better after the first episode, but this series still seems very confused and uncertain about what it's trying to be. After a few good episodes, the last was so simple and tropey that I skipped through it to just get the gist of each scene. Could still drop.

Iruma-kun at Demon School - Oh, my; this is still the highlight of the season for me. It's funny, light, and charming. I don't see too many people talking about this one, which surprises me.

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Other things:

The car situation (which I haven't mentioned on here but basically we need at least 4 operational vehicles between us and our kids and we have two, none of which can stay with the kids) is looking up, as the kids' Toyota is finally off to be repaired. After getting the engine replaced for free by the oil change place that put the wrong filter on, the transmission went out and nobody in town would work on an automatic trans-axle.

I bought a Corvette this weekend. Completely unintentionally. An unbelievably mint 1984. I won it on eBay, for honestly about $500 - $1000 less than what it could probably be sold for 7 times out of 10. But it was no reserve, and I paid my deposit and contacted the seller. They messaged me back the next morning and said they couldn't sell it. No explanation. No refund. I demanded my refund; that took another 24 hours. Left negative feedback. But, yeah; I owned a 1984 Corvette for the weekend.

Updated with notes after 2 - 3 episodes:

Rifle Is Beatiful:

Two eps in, I like this a lot better after realizing that it's based on a 4-koma (it's pretty obvious after the first few jokes in the first episode) and also realizing that the style of art and humor reminds me strongly of Hidemari Sketch. (NOTE especially for Wonderduck: I've only read the manga, I still haven't watched the anime.) The bottom line is, since world-building is not the point, I find myself with questions frequently. In order to watch this, I have to limit myself to about 8 minutes at time, because the point is the punchline that's delivered once per minute (that's illustrative, not definite). When multiple 4-koma are combined into a single story, the rhythm feels off and I start losing interest.

Still, the show is cute above all, and the character designs are quite good. Figures of the main character are going to be quite popular, as she is the definition of an oppai loli that isn't actually a loli. Somewhat like Tatsumaki from One Punch Man is called "the legal loli". (CLARIFICATION: yes she's still underage for many places and people, being a high-school girl. I am specifically referring to the trope, not technicalities.)

Also, I'm still somewhat confused about the rifles. They've been called laser guns and beam guns, but the bit demonstrating how they work looked just like a standard "light gun" to me. I.e., a Nintendo zapper.

Azur Lane: I love it. Animation gets cheap at times even in the first episode, which is never a good sign. But the art is great and I love the character designs. The story is not quite what I was expecting: there were/are aliens in the ocean, but they were all defeated by the creation of ship girls. But NOW that that war is over, Japan (Sakura Union) and Germany (Iron Union) have teamed up to form the Axis and are using alien tech to declare war on America (Eagle Union) and Britain (Royal Union), for control of the entire world.

The Big Damn Hero, at least at the start of the show, is Enterprise (CV-6, the Grey Ghost), and her entrance into the battle that closes off the first episode is appropriately epic. There is no real audience insert character, as Fubuki played in Kantai Collection, but Cleveland, Laffey (very sleepy, don't wake her up), and Unicorn form something like the trio of Fubuki, Yuudachi, and Mutsuki in KanColle. Illustrious and Prince of Wales provide the sempai roles.

That the story focuses so heavily on American vessels while the Japanese vessels are the bad guys in and of itself makes the story more interesting to me. Certainly this is all filtered through at least some level of Chinese lenses, but it's still a Japanese production primarily being released in Japan. I honestly expected at least some level of grumbling, but I haven't seen any and other anime viewers have reported the same.

Definitely finishing this one. Very good.

After 3 episodes, I'm still enjoying this series. There's some clarification of the names of the allied "countries", but that's not really important: It's the United States and Britain vs Japan and Germany. Interestingly, the designs use a lot of similar conventions to KanColle (gun size=breast size, more or less). Maybe that's not so surprising as it's a very useful trope in a series like this, but more interesting is that they seem to tease historical connections such as the fates of the Yorktown-class carriers, but it informs the characters rather than "possesses" the characters, as in KanColle. Both are interesting takes, and I wouldn't be upset if they explore how that affects our ship girls a bit more. Friend Wonderduck has referenced the game story and shared some bits with me; and if they stick to that it's going to create some very interesting situations.

Chuubiyou Gekihatsu Boy: This is both about what I expected, and not really. The premise is a female student transfers to a new school and gets caught up with a group of boys with Chuunibyou. Hijinks ensue. What actually happens: well, all that. Yes. BUT...all the boys take each other's Chuunibyou very seriously: the boy who says he was the product of a demon and angel mating in a former life, the boy who believes he's part of a sentai team with the other boys, the boy who is totally dedicated to his 2D dating game girlfriends, and the two other boys who haven't really been introduced yet. And they all believe the girl has secret powers that haven't awakened yet.

It's over the top, yes; and well produced and acted, yes...but it takes itself too seriously. The direction and pacing are of an actual seinen action series, not a goofball comedy. And that's what really diminished the first episode; that the comedy is what the 3rd party characters in the anime see, but the ensemble cast and audience are meant to watch the story on a different level.

I haven't decided if I'll watch the second episode.

Two episodes later, and this has become much better. The class rep and Hijiri's (the girl) only female friend ends up getting the Hero Club's help in deterring a classmate who's stalking her and won't take "no" for an answer. She comes off as sweet, sincere, and a tad ditzy; and can interpret Black's (the boy who acts like an anime antagonist and is the product of an angel and a demon mating in a previous life) overly-dramatic pronouncements with ease (and seems to find him endearing). For instance, a pronouncement that he can only wear clothes prepared by his own regal family: "Oh, your Mom buys all your clothes." The boy with the tail turns out to be just as self-deluded as the others, claiming to be the only one with "real" superpowers, although it turns out he's dominated by his three older sisters and has to take care of his twin younger siblings. I expect similar reveals for all the characters. (Black, I suspect, will turn out to be a spoiled but lonely only child, based on what they've shown so far.) These subsequent episodes really dial down the "seriousness" of the first episode, which helps tremendously.

Kandagawa Jet Girls: Art is good, although it fades a bit as the episode plays out. BUT...yes; this is definitely an echi series. There is a late-night uncensored airing that features naked boobs and butt cleavage, and more explicit dialogue (I haven't verified that last bit, but the translations are certainly different). What I was wrong about: it's more echi than I thought it was.

In the future, jet ski racing is done as a sport on super jet skis with a pilot and a shooter. The goal of the game is to...shoot the other team's clothes off. And the guns used apparently shoot orgasm bullets. ON THE OTHER HAND: the shooter of our main pairing (yuri is definitely implied for the entire sport) is Misa Aoi, a tall full figured girl with black hair, purple highlights, and blue eyes. I will definitely be buying figures of her when they are available. There's a story in here about the main character's mother, too; but that hasn't really started, yet.

Definitely continue, but if it's just a service show, I can see dropping it.

WARNING: Do not watch the WetGirls fansub, unless you want a laugh after watching an actual fansub. The WetGirls fansub is either a joke or an attempt at a What's Up, Tiger Lily? - esque made-up translation, although it's much more meta in nature. Switching back to a real fansub, and after watching the first race in episode 2, the series has much more substance. Oddly, this is one of those series where the more exaggerated something is (like breast size) the harder it is to enjoy the story, even as much as the story in this series exists only as an excuse to show curvy girls in skimpy swimwear (that can be shot off for reasons even the show admits are because that's why you're watching the show). But there IS something to this series, and the racing itself wasn't so completely bullshit that I've written it off as nothing MORE than fanservice. Judgement remains on hold.

Iruma-kun at Demon School: What I expected and so much more. Reminds me strongly of Boku no Hero Academia, but I haven't looked into whether there's a good reason for that. Identical art style, similar story elements. Thankfully, Iruma is just plain goofy. Iruma-kun's parents are unreliable and uncaring, and Iruma has to work to pay off his parents' debts. While working on a salmon trawler in a storm, Iruma is transported to the demon world because his parents sold his soul to the demon Sullivan. Sullivan has always wanted a grandson, but he's childless himself and is tired of hearing Belial and Revy brag about their grandsons. So he begs Iruma to sign a contract to be his grandson. Iruma is promptly sent to demon school, and he's warned that if anyone finds out he's human, he will be eaten. Because that's what demons do. It's even in the school song. In fact, it IS the school song.

It turns out Sullivan ojiisan is the Director of demon school, and not only brags on his new grandson Iruma-kun in front of the entire student body, he then insists that Iruma-kun give the welcoming address instead of the incoming student with the highest entrance exam grade. On top of that, ojiisan writes out a forbidden spell for Iruma-kun to recite (without telling him about any of this). The spell is so powerful that you could explode if you say it wrong or hesitate, but its effect is that you can't trip or fall for the entire day. Grandpa meant it as gift, you see. Iruma-kun's recitation of a forbidden spell in front of everyone impresses the hell out of the student body, and he's immediately challenged to a dual by the top student he was substituted for, Asmodeus. Asmodeus is master of fire magic, but Iruma has developed insane dodging skills thanks to a lifetime of misfortune. After twenty straight minutes of failing, Asmodeus decides to try martial arts, which Iruma-kun instinctively dodges. Iruma then has to save Asmodeus from flying over the wall, but the momentum is too much to overcome.

Except Iruma-kun has a spell on him now that prevents him from falling or tripping, and the spell literally yanks him (and therefore Asmodeus) backwards. When the dust clears, Iruma-kun's feet are planted perfectly on the ground, and he has performed, for all intents and purposes, a perfect German Suplex on Asmodeus. This, of course, leads to Asmodeus pledging himself to Iruma-kun in his quest to achieve the demon lord throne.

Which is a plot point introduced almost as an aside at the beginning of the first episode.

This was fun. It's absurd. The art fits the goofy nature of the show. I'll keep watching until it gets too serious.

UPDATE: Iruma-kun At Demon School remains charming, sweet, funny, and fun. Along with Azur Lane, it's the only series so far that I unreservedly recommend to anyone to try. In the second episode, he summons his own teacher (a Professor Snape stand-in) as his demon familiar, which should be IMPOSSIBLE for a demon and further sets him apart as an amazing stand-out student. In episode 3, he meets Clara, who's blood is made of Red Bull and has the family ability "Food Synthesizer". She has two magic bags of holding that can produce ANYTHING SHE'S EVER SEEN. Which means she's A) banned from all stores in the demon realm, and B) is nigh-impossible to be around for most people, but who's ability is abused ruthlessly by many of her classmates, which she uses to "buy" friendship, even if it's of the very cheapest kind.

The story wasn't subtle about this, nor did they hit you over the head with it. You pick up on what's going on quickly, but when you realize a couple of minutes later that Clara is not semi-intelligent vending machine and actually understands and participates in the practice because it's the only way she can obtain companionship of any kind; I CRIED, Y'ALL.

Naturally the kind-hearted Iruma befriends her genuinely, at which point he obtains a lifelong companion THAT COULD GIVE HIM AN ARMY AND A BATTALION OF TANKS AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT. Not that the kind-hearted Iruma-kun would ever do that. Having a Clara is a game-breaking cheat.

XL Joushi: nobody is subbing this in English, yet. Dammit.

Umm...let's see...

I quit farming, we covered that...didn't do much of anything for a while other than video games and part-time work...went back to work as the Precision Ag manager for a local implement builder, taking over the job of three people....

Right, that's where the story picks up.

When I started, I replaced three people. As I just mentioned. Aside from me, there is the Owner/President, his wife who does the bookkeeping and accounts payable, a file clerk who also does accounts receivable and covers the store counter, the store manager/parts manager who is the main person who covers the counter, orders parts, does inventory. Also another salesman who ostensibly backs up precision ag, but doesn't really; a shop manager, and two shop employees (one of which was my brother-in-law).

My brother-in-law left in January for another job. He was replaced in May by someone to support me in Precision Ag, and also work in the shop. The salesman left a couple of months ago, and wasn't replaced; but I took his spot backing up the counter. The store manager is leaving at the end of the week to take the job my brother-in-law left to take, that he quit to go back to working for himself, and the file clerk/AR person is leaving next month.

The current plan is for me and the shop manager to split the duties of the store manager and the file clerk; the assistant Precision Ag guy will be the shop manager, and no new personnel will be hired until next year.

I have my doubts.

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We had a good crop until summer, when it stopped raining, until last week, when it started raining when it was too late to do any good. So nobody is going to be spending money this winter. That's never good.

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The summer anime season I watched How Heavy are the Dumbbells You Lift? and Cop Craft. I still need to watch the last two episodes of Cop Craft, actually.

Dumbbell is an incredibly aptly named series. It is saved, and indeed made enjoyable, by knowing exactly what it is and what it's doing. Even then, it stretches thin in the end. There just aren't that many jokes to be made, and the show made all of them. Cop Craft is...fine. Good, even; at times. Great character designs, good; very good ideas. It falters a bit in the execution...I think a better director could have done more in this case. Most tellingly, the OP is an explosion on par with such greats as Cowboy Bebop, and it never lives up to that promise.

The Fall season actually features five six anime I'm interested in trying:

• Azur Lane, which I'm sure everyone knows is based on a Chinese mobile game that started as a cash-in on the popularity of Kantai Collection. I'm not expecting anything beyond minimal plot (probably involving aliens) and hot boat-girls.

• Chuubyou Gekihatsu Boy - cute girl transfers schools and gets involved with five boys with chuunibyou. If you've forgotten, chuunibyou is "middle school disease" and describes (mostly) boys and (sometimes) girls who respond to the typical feelings of isolation and angst by pretending to be a dark, mysterious, powerful, anime protagonists/antagonists. An analogue of being "gothic" in the 90's in western culture. Sounds like it could be a cute comedy.

• Mairimashita! Iruma-kun - An isekai series. Iruma gets transported to the demon world, and adopted by a demon who always wanted a grandson. Iruma then goes to demon school ("grandpa" is the chairman) and has wacky adventures and wins over his classmates. Again, sounds like it could be a fun comedy.

• XL Joushi - I'm not sure if this is hentai or not; or if it's just an ecchi romance. Female office worker takes a part-time job testing "adult" products and is tasked with testing the new "XL" condom. But where is she going to find an XL....test subject...in Japan??? Turns out her office boss is...umm...appropriately...sized. Tagged as a romance, features adults instead of kids...but also tagged is "explicit". I guess we'll find out!!! The description is hilarious...

• Kandagawa Jet Girls - cute, sexy girls in swimsuits compete in jet ski races. Ecchi sports anime. Woooooo!!!!

• Rifle Is Beautiful - High school girls club anime, except the club is shooting sports. Protagonist must start up the club again, recruit members, compete. I don't know if it will be *good*, but I want to see what they do with it. Lots and lots of gun otaku in Japan.

So that's my fall season, unless I've missed something. The winter season is supposed to be pretty good, so I was surprised to find so many shows I wanted to watch this fall.

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Baseball ends (for my teams) this week, and I don't have a lot of interest in the playoffs, except for cheering on whoever the Yankees and Astros are playing...which means I think I'm backing the Dodgers and the Brewers.


That is all, for now.