Update #122 Snotrocket science

Preparing for takeoff... *Inhales* Houston, we have liftoff! Oh, it's a mighty one! So yellow and shiny one might mistake it for mayonnaise!

...

No, Tim, I do not think it would be "sciency" to have a taste, it would just be disgusting. You have to get your hands dirty for science? No, Tim, I think that-oh, you already ate it. You know what, Tim? You're fired!

Damned hard to find good snotrocket scientists these days, why are they all freaks? I should've studied strain surgery instead. Why, I could've been high all day! Instead I'm covered in mucus. Eugh.

Caught a cold, presumably at the airport or on the plane. It's been a rather mild cold, milder than any I've had in a long time. Only two days of fever, but it's obviously slowed me down this week. Feeling a lot better these last two days, just a bit of a sniffle and some coughing now. And sneezing, thus the snotrockets.

Don't think I've gotten sick twice in a year in a very long time. Come to think of it, I don't think I was sick at all last year. This is probably karma for that, always one illness per year, no more, no less. That seems to be carved in stone for me.

At this point I've consumed enough tea that I'm pretty sure I've shifted my DNA a few percentages towards being British. Although, according to Wikipedia, Turkey, Ireland, and Azerbaijan actually beats the UK in per capita consumption. Also consumed enough honey that by the same logic I might be part bear now. Maybe my one chest hair will get companions?

I feel bad about not getting more done, which I know I shouldn't. Can't exactly help getting sick, and can't exactly help getting less done when sick. But emotions are stupid silly things that do not bow to rationality. At least I got enough done to show off some new extra spicy renders, so there's that.

A Ruru a day keeps the doctor away! Which is quite inconvenient when you're sick and actually need to see the doctor.

I mentioned in an earlier Update® that I was playing around with simpler "animations". That is, using Ren'Py's dissolve function to transition between two or more images in a way that's smooth enough to look decent. Now, this is, as you may imagine, a much quicker way to make a little animation. It's also a lot more fun for me, since I can do pretty much whatever I want, instead of scrolling through existing animations to see what I can make of them.

Downside is of course that they're not going to look more than decent, it's obviously not going be actual smooth 60fps animation, or anything really near it. I'm curious how you guys will feel about it, but we'll get there once the episode drops.

I have discovered another downside though, since they're simpler and easier, I feel the need to make more, and so I'm making quite a lot of them. Well, in comparison to how many actual animations I've usually done. So instead of saving time, I'm devoting a lot of time on making them.

We'll see if the results are worth it, I hope so!

Licking is a perfect example of something I wouldn't be able to animate at all normally

Been thinking a bit about poetry again. Specifically the trochee. Uh, don't ask me to pronounce that. It's kind of the opposite to the iambic, instead of soft->hard syllables, it goes hard->soft.

There's two lines that's been in my head from Death or Glory by The Clash, goes something like this:

Love and hate tattooed across the knuckles of his hands,

Hands that slap his kids around 'cuz they don't understand

It's a very punchy rhythm, and mostly the entire song goes like that, hard->soft hard->soft. These two lines in particular also does some more stuff I really like, but couldn't explain/name until I read The Elements of Eloquence (which I've mentioned before).

Ending and beginning the lines with the same word is called an anadiplosis, which sounds fancy. More importantly, I think, is characterizing a man by his hands only, which I think is what's called a synecdoche. Makes for a visceral vision in my head when I hear the lines, two tattooed knuckles show up, then they open up and start slapping.

I don't think knowing the names (it's not like I remember them anyway, had to look them up again for this post) helps much in actually writing. It can to an extent, but I think most of the time you just come up with something that sounds nice. But these terms of rhetoric are very useful for actually dissecting what makes sentences and phrases tick.

Through that dissection, there is then learning. But if you try to force alliteration, assonance, anadiplosises and other things that start with an a, it really risks making your writing more about trying to be fancy, and in the process lose any actual substance. Balance! That's the keyword, as always.

What makes futanari testicles tick?

I finally finished Joe Abercrombie's The Devils once I got home. I had just a little bit left when I went on vacation, but I felt like the book was too big to actually bring with me, so it had to wait for a week.

Towards the end of the book the constant quips got a bit too much, really a bit marvelesque. That's when it dawned on me, this really is trying to be a Marvel movie, only grittier and shittier. Shittier in the sense that it features excess fecal matter, not that the book is bad.

Every main character has their superpower, every fight they have is to make their superpower look cool and awesome, quips and even more quips on top of your quips, often during fighting.

All that said, I did really enjoy the book. It was fast and fun and the characters were great. It's just that I feel like Abercrombie is capable of writing even better, he is genuinely witty, which is why most of the quips actually work. There were just too many for my taste. Still, would recommend the book for anyone looking for a fun action fantasy story.

Anyway, that's about all I had to quip about today, I hope to be back next Update© with better news and more stuff done. This one scene is really turning into a bit of a slog at this point. Trust me, I don't like it anymore than you do.

Thank you very much for your support, and I wish you clear nasal cavities this week!