Quote of the Moment

"What's Past Is Prologue." - William Shakespeare

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Mini Mind Splat #8: Mini Mind Splats

MINI MIND SPLAT WARNING: Nothing I comment on is meant to offend. It's simply my opinion and how I feel about certain things (mostly inconsequential things). I'd love to see thoughts from others in the comments. Just remember, have fun with it. This isn't meant to be super serious.

Where's The Duck?
I'm getting all meta up in here today - lol. It's a Mini Mind Splat about Mini Mind Splats!

So, I've been having fun writing up some of these Mini Mind Splats. It's a little more freeing than my more planned posts, and they don't take too long to type up. I thought they'd be a nice little addition to the blog, mainly in an attempt to post content at least once a week. It's also a bit of insight into my psyche, as fractured as it is.

With that said, I think it's time to hit the pause button on these. It seems that most people aren't all that interested in my opinions on silly things (maybe even some people take those silly things really seriously and hate it that I'm making light of them -- sorry if that's the case).

Again, I enjoy posting them, which in normal circumstances would be enough to keep me going. A million things on my plate, though, do not make for normal circumstances. I'm feeling more overwhelmed than usual and want to make sure I'm spending my writing time on more important things than allowing myself to mind dump all over a blog post.

This means I'm going back down to one post every other week, until there's such a time where I can up that count again to once a week. When that time comes, I may bring back Mini Mind Splats.

Unless of course people convince me otherwise. Have you been enjoying my silly opinions? I'd happily be encouraged to wiggle them back into my schedule if there's actually some interest. Leave a comment below, or send me a private message if you don't want to be embarrassed by publicly acknowledging you actually like my ramblings. ;)

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Summoners War - New Toys

Wow, it's nearly been three months since my last Summoners War post!

As mentioned in my last post, I took the time to 5-Star many of my 4-Star (and some 3-Star) Mons on my Water/Light/Dark account. There's still plenty I want to 5-Star soon, but I now at least have a couple more good teams to run Tartarus Labyrinth, which is a fun (in my opinion -- some people hate it) option for guilds. This week we opened up all three mini-bosses and Tartarus himself in less than three days. Now we just have to beat them all down!

OK, I have to admit, I wasn't just 5-Starring Mons. Because... I pulled some awesome Nat 5-Stars that I needed to 6-Star! I definitely got lucky, since both Mons were Water and I can use them.

First, I got Verad. He was one of two options I had to choose from since my 5-Star Blessing still hadn't been used. I think my other option was also a Water Mon, but I hands down chose Verad. He's the dragon I've wanted for a while on any of my accounts, though I'd gotten the Fire and Wind one on my main account previously. Look at that pretty dragon roar. I'm already feeding him devilmon to skill him up, and I love him so much. He's a beast.

Not even a week later (I had a rather great string of luck in the span of two weeks on three of my accounts, after a super long dry spell), low and behold I randomly pull another Nat 5. No Blessing this time, but luckily it was another Water: Lightning Emperor, Bolverk! This is a newer Mon, so I was also pleased to get him. I've already 6-Starred him as well, but as you can see, I'm still in the process of getting him to level 40. He'll be next up for the devilmon after Verad. He has a rather interesting mechanism with gaining Knowledge from buffs and then performing a kind of hitpoint tap with his big skill. I love the graphics of the skill, too.

Oh, and I also finished my fusion for the Dark Ifrit, Veromos, plus I 6-Starred him, too! Man, I've been busy on that account. I don't even know how many other Mons I 5-Starred. Lost track!

Aside from Nat 5 luck, I also managed to get my first Light/Dark lightning on this account. I pulled the Nat 4 Light Taoist (or Stick Boy, as the YouTuber Jewbagel calls them often), Hwadam. He's the next Light Mon I'm working on, currently building things up so I can 6-Star him. Also, he's nice and easy to skill up, since the Fire Stick Boys are only 3-Star Mons. I'd been saving a bunch for my Water Sticky Boy, but they all went to Hwadam once I summoned him.

I'm also hoping I'll have the time to 6-Star at least one Dark Mon before my next post. Here's Gina, the Dark Mystic Witch. I love how the Mystic Witches look, and I wanted to work on her right away when I summoned her, but clearly, as seen above, several other Mons got in the way of that.

This month is also pretty exciting in Summoners War. It's the 5th anniversary of the game, and they've started a pretty awesome event. So, by the end of the month, I might have three more Light/Dark scrolls to possibly get some more Mons to add to my list to work on. Here's hoping for my first Light/Dark Nat 5 ever! (The odds of pulling one of these is 1 in 300 -- never got one on a single account yet.)

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Mini Mind Splat #7: Moods

MINI MIND SPLAT WARNING: Nothing I comment on is meant to offend. It's simply my opinion and how I feel about certain things (mostly inconsequential things). I'd love to see thoughts from others in the comments. Just remember, have fun with it. This isn't meant to be super serious.

Have you ever just woken up in the morning in a foul mood? You know, the whole "got up on the wrong side of the bed" adage.

If you haven't, you're a lucky person. Nowadays, it seems like it happens more and more often. I think I need more sleep. Or a daily professional massage. Something.

And I hate it that the mood I wake up in often colors all of my interactions for the day, unless I force myself to stop and think through things rather slowly, which wastes time, which in turn makes me moodier because I have way too many things to get done to be wasting time on policing my words and actions.

If I'm in "a mood" I seem to snap more at my kids (and sometimes Hubbie), plus I'm even harder on myself. Nothing can go right. It's like the day is ruined before it even starts, and there's nothing I can do to rectify it. Hell, everything I do just feels like it makes it worse. Lose-lose situation.

The solution? Usually going to bed and waking up the next morning. At least that's the way it is for me most of the time. I have to start a new day to shake myself from the pervasive mood (even that sometimes doesn't work). On occasion if an amazing, awesome, unexpected event happens, I'll also shake off the grumblies, but this is rare.

When I'm in a bad mood, I also find it hard to do certain tasks. Like talking to people, or any type of communication for that matter (ahem, blogging). I just want to hide in my hole away from the world and simmer in my bitchiness. Honestly, it's probably better for everyone that way.

So, what happens when you're in a foul mood? What do you do to get rid of it?

And if you've never been in "a mood", turn around and walk away because now probably isn't the time to lecture me about having a perfect and endlessly happy life. It's one of those days, and neither side of the bed was the right one.

Well, then. I better wrap this up before I snap at the entirety of the Internet...

Wednesday, April 03, 2019

Captain Marvel - Higher, Further, Faster

***WARNING: Spoilers ahead! Oh, yes, so many spoilers. What, you haven't seen Captain Marvel yet? Well, get your butt to a theater -- you won't regret it. If you'd rather not be spoiled, don't read on. If you've seen Captain Marvel already, I hope you enjoy my comments.***

It's taken me a while to finally post about Captain Marvel, partly due to life getting in the way last month, but also because I really feel like my response to this movie just won't do it justice. There are so many great things about it. If I miss something, feel free to add what you enjoyed in the comments!

First, I got to say I was super excited for this movie for an unimaginably long time. Every time Hubbie or I would mention it, I'd likely squee with excitement (and subsequently get strange looks from Hubbie, of course). It was about time the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) introduced a female led movie. Actually, long overdue. And thankfully it did well at the box office, which gives me hope there will be plenty more MCU movies with a woman at the helm.

One of the refreshing things about Captain Marvel is the lack of romantic relationships. For some reason, whenever movies are made with female leads, they try to shove in some type of romance. Even though I also loved Wonder Woman, it still made sure to add in a romance subplot -- this subplot was subsequently one of the driving forces to get Diana to act. In Captain Marvel, though, there was none of that. This also made Carol's other relationships stronger and stand out more, especially with her best friend and best friend's daughter. It showed that a woman doesn't need a love interest to spur her forward.

Along with that, it gave her a great arc that at the end she accepted she didn't have to prove anything to anybody, especially Yon-Rogg, her superior. They could have fouled all this up by having a romantic relationship between the two, but they did an awesome job keeping it platonic, so when she stands up to him at the end the impact of her actions are much stronger.

Carol Danvers is a great female character, but I also loved young Monica Rambeau. Even at her age, she has a lot of determination. I really hope they decide to turn her into Photon in the MCU down the line (maybe we'll even see her in Avengers: Endgame? I can only hope). Monica clearly gets her strong will from her mother, Maria, and Aunt Carol. They did so well building so many strong female characters in this movie, Mar-Vell (aka Dr. Wendy Lawson) included, even though we don't see much of her.

Now, the above is clearly what made me the most excited, but it's not the only thing. 90s nostalgia anyone?

I know, not everyone will get nostalgic depending on their age, but I sure did. I was a 90s child, after all. Maybe I should have used my Game Boy to create an interstellar communications device? Lol. And it was probably the best Stan Lee cameo ever with the reference to his role in Chasing Amy. Blockbuster, pagers, and the songs -- oh, the songs! Hubbie and I were both geeking out over all the 90s memories.

And how can I not mention Goose? I've now taken to calling our little buff tabby cat (though ours is a girl) a flerken. It's fitting that Goose takes out Nick Fury's eye, too. I understand this and a few other things might lend themselves to some inconsistencies in the MCU since Captain Marvel is a prequel, but it's all too fun to matter, in my opinion.

Speaking of Goose, I missed the post-credits scene when he hacked up the Tesseract. I blame Hubbie! He claimed there wasn't another scene after the first one. Clearly, he was mistaken.

OK, I think I've gushed long enough. You think I liked the movie? I mean, I did buy two Captain Marvel sweatshirts already and have my eye on a t-shirt or two. I wanted the flerken Funko Pop, but it was sold out already once I found out about it.

What do you think about Captain Marvel? Did you have as much fun watching it as I did?