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greetings thatoddhaystack shareholders. I brought buffalo chicken dip in a slow cooker for this month’s meeting. I forgot to get chips though so… you can pick some up from the vending machines just outside the meeting room. I think my plan of “don’t worry about writing one of these every month” was a very good idea and kept this from looming over my head while I took care of everything else in september and october…

september projects

I mentioned this in the last entry but september was kind of a time of restoration for me. I knew at the end of august that I felt Bad and Burnt Out and I needed to spend some time chilling. unfortunately and fortunately I had a Big Adult Task at the very beginning of september that required me to do a lot of house prep for. but once that was past it was very much a weight off my mind and I started to breath easier for a bit.

I did do my regular monthlies of listen to vgperson highlights and read a book. I read a few books actually. but I don’t keep track of them that well aside from slapping them on my logs page when I finish… I also posted two oc profiles!! so now all of the heaven be dammed characters are posted which feels good. I did also start picking at things for my halloween horror nights prep by watching a few of the friday the 13th movies. I also kept up with weekly doodles as per usual.

I completed a few crochet projects in september! first and probably the biggest project I’ve made to date is a baby blanket I made for a baby shower at the beginning of october. I’ve been picking at this pattern since the end of july and during september I finally sat down and finished it out. I originally wasn’t going to add a border for it but at the very end I thought I would use some of my scrap acrylic yarn to add a border and I am pleased with how it turned out. I think the border frames the multicolored yarn nicely. I also crocheted a mini art the clown amigurumi with the intention of bringing him to halloween horror nights, and a tiny cardigan for sandalnui since it’s getting colder here and I thought it would be cute for him to have a little coverup.

I made a birthday present for my mom, which normally I wouldn’t mention in a post like this but this year I had to be a little creative with it… she had requested that I print out and laminate copies of different races/events she had done recently in new york city, and for 2/3 of the maps I was able to find one fairly easily online to print out with no further editing. the great saunter, however, did Not have an officially done map with branding graphics and what not, only a google map with locations marked out. I very carefully composited three screenshots of the map together and then used graphics from the great saunter’s website to make a mockup of an official map that matched the style of the other maps more than just a plain google map would have. honestly even thought the final result was fairly simple the process to get there was less so, and I am proud I managed to puzzle out a solution to not having an official map.

in terms of ukagaka work, in september I finished writing prompts for aughost, an event where every day 3-4 prompts are posted with the intent that you use them to write dialogue for your ghost(s) with them. I didn’t finish it in august this year, but it only took me another month to get around to writing them all up as opposed to several months last year. this year, I wrote a lot more for ghosts that are already published instead of my WIPs, so after finishing aughost I pivoted to implementing the new dialogue. I published Lunar Leporidae’s update at the end of september, with Caged Fly and Midnight Sheep following at the beginning of october.

website wise, I wrote an update post in september, and updated my media logs and now page after having not touched either for… a few months. I can't promise I will Always have those up to date but I would like to try to squeeze in log updates asap after I finish something so it doesn't pile up… I also wrote most of a ghost jam roundup post during the month, although it wasnt finished and posted until october.

lastly, I kept picking at japanese reviews throughout the month and got down to under 1000 reviews on wanikani. my goal of learning japanese continues to be everpresent on my mind…

september happenings

I went to the dragula season 6 tour! I shelled out for the VIP meet and greet this time around because one of the performers (grey matter) was someone I really admired… my sibling and I ended up sitting a few seats away from desiree diks (one of the other season 6 contestants who didn’t make it to the finals & is a DC native) which kind of gagged me because it took me entirely too long to realize it was miss diks… please forgive me…. anyways it was a great show and I had a lot of fun!! I felt a little awkward talking with the monsters one on one but that is entirely on me…. i am still kind of awkward with strangers HGJSDHGKJ

my mom visited from NYC for her birthday and we went to the maryland renaissance faire as is our usual tradition… I actually didn’t buy that much this year; I think I just got a new pair of earrings? the weather was pretty nice though and the food was great as always… I took a few snaps with my instant camera but this was when I was still figuring it out so most of the pictures are underexposed LMAO.

I didn’t do too much the rest of the month because I was resting… there was a room spray workshop hosted by my office’s building management that I went to and got three (3) free sprays out of which was fun! uhhhh I went to a birthday party… and baked cookies (not for the birthday party just on a whim). oh at the very beginning of the month there was a hangout at a dave and busters as sort of a group birthday party for a bunch of people with september birthdays that I went to… except I timed it poorly and had to leave to get vaccinated in the middle of the hangout and so someone else had to pay for my food (I paid them back) and I felt very awkward!! about that!! pensive emoji.

october projects

I was out on vacation for a whole week near the end of october so when planning my october goals I knew I would need to cut back some…. still kept up with reading a book monthly, as well as listening to the monthly vgperson highlights. also managed to post a small oc profile this month! one of my standalone ocs, a guy based off a random goat I adopted in goatlings… doing spot art for oc profiles is a bit boring for me but I tried to make it interesting by making them lineless this time. something about drawing lineless art makes it feel more like sculpting than drawing. like I'm slowly carving out the character from a hunk of color rather than building them up from lines. is this anything.jpeg

SO even with trimming down my weeklies I still ended up sliding on two things onto my todo list, but since both were physical crafts I thought it would be OK to have them as a break between all the time I spent on my computer. one project was an inktober art card swap hosted by cut/sew! I watercolored some pumpkins and ghosts for my card. I didn't really have a plan going in, just that I wanted to experiment with some gold watercolors that I had purchased over the summer. sadly the shimmer doesnt show up well in a still image, but I think it really pops in motion. I also crocheted a hat for an event held by my local library! they were handing out free skeins of yarn and in return asked for a hat for donation (either knit or crochet). I really love the pattern that I settled on, but my skein of yarn ended up being a bit too small for the pattern and so I had to omit a row. I don't think you can tell though unless you are really looking. I might end up crocheting a hat for myself with this pattern because I really like how the texture looks.

I continued to pick at wanikani reviews through the month and finally hit zero reviews (yay!) which then climbed back up to 500-ish reviews while I was on vacation (boo!!). I know I should have put my account on vacation mode when I was away from home, but I had greatly overestimated the amount of energy and enthusiasm I would have for japanese reviews while on vacation so I thought I could take care of it. which ended up Very Not being the case.

the bulk of what I did in october was preparing for halloween horror nights! I take it Seriously. and by seriously I mean watching all the movies/tv shows that are covered each year. drawing and producing stickers that I trade with others. preparing a (casual) cosplay that I wear to at least one of the nights I go. I was successful with doing my HHN homework for the most part; I felt like some of the original houses this year had very little in terms of background lore and I felt unsure where to learn about the wyatt sicks house aside from some brief overview videos. I did get my stickers in on time although it was a very close shave. normally I've been producing stickers through vograce, but due to the tariff situation in the US currently I was nervous that I would get slapped with huge fees if I went through them this year. I procrastinated enough that the only viable option was sticker blitz, a US based sticker company that claimed a next day turnaround. it was a bit on the pricier side compared to my previous vograce order, but I really cant complain considering it was a blazing fast turnaround and I got my stickers with ample time even with my tight deadline. I put together a herbert west cosplay made in part with thrifted pieces and unfortunately a few things I had to buy off amazon because I was running out of time. entirely my fault for not starting to put together my outfit more than a week and a half before the event. I did really like how it turned out in the end!!

october happenings

I went to a local farm with a friend and then we hung out more afterwards and that was very nice :+). I often forget that sometimes I get depressed because I don’t. see anyone outside of my coworkers or immediate family so it is a breath of fresh air to have an IRL to hang out with now. I took several instants at the farm and many photos of sandalnui…. I also went to a baby shower at the beginning of october! the soon to be parents really enjoyed my baby blanket which I was really happy about. I also drew this pumpkin on a baby onesie that I think turned out really well. y’know, for someone who is primarily a character artist I keep finding myself drawing pumpkins for things…

I took my IRL to ikea since they had never been before and we took lots of oshikatsu photos at ikea which was so beautiful. this is your sign that you can oshikatsu anywhere.

I had a little of an early bday celebration with my family since I would be on vacation and out of state on my birthday proper. I hung out with my sibling at the mall and we went to a newly opened adult playground space that actually ruled. I did not do well at the physical challenge rooms but it made me more motivated to get in shape so I could succeed at the challenge rooms…. later on I went out to dinner with the rest of my family and we got a cake from a local bakery :+).

the biggest event I had in october was going to orlando for a week for halloween horror nights and epic universe! I stayed on universal property for the first time in… over a decade. the hotel let us into epic universe early which according to my seasoned parkgoer friends was a Must.

I really enjoyed halloween horror nights this year especially compared to last year which felt… quieter I guess? hatchet and chains was my favorite house of the event. the premise was that chains (human bounty hunter) and hatchet (demon that had been saved by chains and was indebted to him) teamed up to fight lava demons that were summoned in a wild west town. did I maybe like this one the most because it has a #yaoiful premise of two dudes with one being saved by the other then teaming up… but also I thought the makeup for the lava demons in the house was Really Cool and there were a lot of small details that were charming…

my least favorite house was the fallout house not because it was Bad but because it was lacking I felt a lot of oomph that some of the other houses had… could have been bigger and grander… yes I did also go through the fallout house the most times (4). the reason for that is because after watching the fallout tv show I obtained a new blorbo in the form of The Ghoul and going through the house the first time and frantically waving at the ghoul scare actors & having them tip their hats at me changed me fundamentally. I knew in my heart that there was a danger that I would become Deathly Attached if the scare actors played nicies with me at all and let me tell you. there is nothing more harrowing in life than developing that sort of blorbo attachment in real time in front of some of your closest friends. everyone had to be nice to me though because it was my birthday and so I could be as silly and self indulgent as I wanted <3

favorite food I ate was the cram tots at the fallout booth… love some cheesy potato tots. did not love the rad away mocktail that was served because it either tasted just like straight lemonade or wayyy too heavy on the chipotle. I did also pick up two of them because I wanted the souvenir bags to give to my falloutpilled family members.

there was a wandering art the clown at HHN this year but every time I saw him he was swarmed with people so I didn’t get to show him my crocheted art. I did however bring crochet art through the terrifier house and the arts in there were delighted with him which I was pleased with :+). I am very hard to scare in haunts but I want the scare actors to know I appreciate them so I usually just wave frantically. and for art the clown it is in character to be a little silly goofy so I felt like I got a lot of fun interactions in that house. my terrifier haterism aside.

I traded many stickers for bracelets over the course of the two days!!! very pleased with my haul this year.

I also went to epic universe for two days! epic universe is universal orlando’s newest park that opened at the start of this year, containing nintendo world, dark universe (think universal monster fanfiction), harry potter (boowhomp), the island of berk (HTTYD) and a central hub world loosely themed around space. dark universe was absolutely my favorite of the worlds, since it had a few walkaround guys I got to goof with (ygor, a monster hunter, and the invisible man) and also the big ticket ride in that area is Sooooo cool. the animatronics are so lifelike it’s insane. I also really enjoyed nintendo world!! they packed a lot of interactivity and minigames into a small space, but it doesn’t even feel that small because the facade stretches so far above what you can walk on that you feel like you’re in the middle of a video game level.

one of my friends made us all toothless tuesday shirts for us to wear when we went to go meet the toothless animatronic in the HTTYD world and that was absolutely the highlight of the epic universe portion of the trip. the viking handler who was with toothless when we visited was so stoked to see our matching shirts, and we had an extra one to give to her that I think she was genuinely excited by beyond just the theme park acting. it was also extra funny that the linekeeper told us we would get a strict two photos for our group and then after we had our toothless tuesday celebration we came out with 17 professional photos and 69 photos on one of my friends’ phones. everyone Love Toothless Tuesday.

I had some firsts for me on the trip as well! I tried oysters for the first time, both cooked in hotpot broth and then raw at the (relatively) high end restaurant at epic universe. they are… interesting! not something I think I would order alone but if someone in my group ordered oysters I would probably have one or two. I also rode on a big scary roller coaster for the first time in. probably many many years. it was hagrid’s motorcycle adventure and I was so fucking scared I swear my soul left my body for some amount of time. levels of anxiety that made me nonverbal waiting in line but I had fun I swear LMAO. I rode two smaller coasters (hiccups wing gliders and mine cart madness) at epic universe that I liked a lot more. maybe I just need to keep tempering myself with the smaller coasters until they get boring to me instead of jumping on one of the big boys first off.

it was a blast to be able to celebrate my birthday with my out of state friends at halloween horror nights and while I’m not sure I will have the funds every year to do a week long vacation I was so happy I got to do it at least once. now I wait for next year’s HHN announcements.

I had one smallish (relatively speaking) event after vacation which was going to a haunt on halloween proper with my brother and some of his friends. there seemed to be a lack of scare actors in the haunt proper and it was just a lot of cool settings and props to look at? which like, I’m not Mad at persay I just wish there were more people to interact with LMAO. I’m not good at yes anding the scare actors but that doesn’t mean I don’t like to goof! I think it was also just really nice to have a little thing to look forward to after vacation so I didn’t just immediately crashout from the dopamine withdrawal.

(bi)monthly favorites

PPPP

TAK with another banger!!!! I fell in love with this song from the start because it’s catchy and poppy, and the mv is soooo cute. being one who is off tiktok and Not a gen z-er there’s a lot of the quote unquote brainrot in the lyrics that flies over my head and I think that’s for the best LMAO. lovely super cutie baby egui yo was a verbal stim of mine for a hot minute.

trader joes pumpkin products

there were several meals over the past two months that I ate by myself (as opposed to with my sibling like I usually do) which gave me free reign to pick up foods that they won’t normally eat. trader joes pumpkin samosas and pumpkin gnocchi were things I picked up almost every time to eat for dinner. the samosas were sooooo yummy delicious on their own, and the pumpkin gnocchi I would pair with chicken sausage and harvest pasta sauce. I think either one or both of them is out of season now and I miss them dearly.

helter skelter

after being told a million years ago that the substance shares themes with this movie, I finally watched it in october. and it fucking rules. every frame in this movie is a feast for the eyes, lilico is a genuinely detestable person (said with the greatest affection! I love when women are allowed to be mean and nasty in media!) and the message still rings true over a decade later. it’s more psychological horror based than the substance, but I do think they would be an awesome double feature.

november plans

since october was kind of a crazy month for me november is more of my Chill Out month. in part because I feel like I blew one william dollars on vacation so I don’t Want to go out and in part because I am very tired and need to regain my energy. I think I am slowly accepting the fact that having a mental illness means I am Disabled and I Can Not do as much as the ideal neurotypical vita in my head can do. which is sad but I’d prefer to accept that and then rework my expectations for myself and continue to feel disappointed that I Can’t Do Things.

so! still gonna continue with regular weekly doodles, keeping up to date on vgperson songs, & reading a monthly book. I will also continue to chip away at japanese reviews so that someday I can learn new material instead of review things I supposedly already have learned. I want to work on the ukagaka wiki again!! I took a break from adding stubs to the wiki and now a plethora of redlinks have appeared… I also want to work on ukgk dev in general because I have a few projects where I’ve written so much dialogue for them, but have yet to start working on a shell for them… hopefully this month I can draw the shell for at least one of my WIPS. I also want to keep picking at my VN project that I am mostly keeping under wraps.

hopefully I can tackle all these things and then take on more projects later in the month… the goal is to keep my initial list small at least for november, so that I can focus on resting also…