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  <title>WillyFourEyes/Waltzoid&apos;s Journal</title>
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  <description>WillyFourEyes/Waltzoid&apos;s Journal - Dreamwidth Studios</description>
  <lastBuildDate>Sun, 13 Sep 2026 11:44:04 GMT</lastBuildDate>
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  <lj:journaltype>personal</lj:journaltype>
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    <title>WillyFourEyes/Waltzoid&apos;s Journal</title>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/35045.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Sun, 13 Sep 2026 11:44:04 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Let the games begin! (...in 4 days)</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/35045.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;So, yeah. I&apos;m gonna jump into the deep end of the &lt;em&gt;Fire Emblem: Fortune&apos;s Weave&lt;/em&gt; trenches in a couple of days, just like a lot of people after that June 2026 Nintendo Direct. Nintendo seems very confident about this game&apos;s prospects since they&apos;ve been advertising and preparing merchandise for it like crazy. I&apos;m taking a deep breath and crossing my fingers that my Collector&apos;s Edition goodies arrive on time and undamaged. I even took two days off from work to get a good head start. My parents and supervisors say I don&apos;t take enough time off, so this is my response to that.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As Nintendo released a slew of weekly updates on character profiles, I plugged away on the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.penpoint.app/&quot;&gt;Penpoint app&lt;/a&gt; for ideas regarding a &lt;em&gt;Fortune&apos;s Weave&lt;/em&gt; AU that expands the Heroic Games somewhat into a more traditional (if unconventional and video game-ified) Summer Olympic Games experience, with track and field events interspersed with all the combat. I &quot;stole&quot; the idea from my memories of playing games like Konami&apos;s &lt;em&gt;Track and Field II&lt;/em&gt; and Technos&apos; &lt;em&gt;Crash &apos;n&apos; the Boys Street Challenge&lt;/em&gt; (a localization of one of the many &lt;em&gt;Kunio-kun&lt;/em&gt; spinoffs) on NES as a kid. The teams are already set up, but my planned fanfic will be written from Cai&apos;s team&apos;s perspective. The &quot;plucky young upstart kid/team&quot; is a narrative as old as the concept of sports itself, so I thought that would make a good starting point.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;What does this mean for my other &lt;em&gt;Fire Emblem&lt;/em&gt; fanfic projects? Well, &lt;em&gt;The Ghost of Ochs&lt;/em&gt; is currently in a &quot;stalled, but not cancelled&quot; state while I worked on a long-form review of &lt;em&gt;Savior King&lt;/em&gt;. Unfortunately, general updates to &lt;span style=&apos;white-space: nowrap;&apos;&gt;&lt;a href=&apos;https://das-sporking2.dreamwidth.org/profile&apos;&gt;&lt;img src=&apos;https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png&apos; alt=&apos;[community profile] &apos; width=&apos;16&apos; height=&apos;16&apos; style=&apos;vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;&apos; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&apos;https://das-sporking2.dreamwidth.org/&apos;&gt;&lt;b&gt;das_sporking2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; have slowed way down in the last few months, so I don&apos;t know when the next chapter will be released for discussion. I wonder now if I should petition to unlock those posts since &lt;em&gt;Savior King&lt;/em&gt; ended more than a year ago, leaving little point for the author to retaliate and &quot;own (the) haters&quot; like myself after the hype/snark cycle has died down.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But enough about that. I need to bathe myself in good vibes again after reading some &quot;this is okay, but I expected something great&quot; reviews of Sony and Insomniac&apos;s soon-to-be-released &lt;em&gt;Wolverine&lt;/em&gt; video game, and playing a &lt;em&gt;Fire Emblem&lt;/em&gt; game that most previewers are optimistic about appears to be the antidote to that. I can&apos;t wait to see how it holds up.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=35045&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/35045.html</comments>
  <category>game: fire emblem</category>
  <category>video games</category>
  <category>fan fiction</category>
  <category>game: fire emblem fortune&apos;s weave</category>
  <category>nintendo switch 2</category>
  <lj:music>&quot;Shadow from Elsewhere&quot; - Fire Emblem: Fortune&apos;s Weave soundtrack</lj:music>
  <lj:mood>giddy</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>0</lj:reply-count>
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<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/34563.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Sat, 22 Aug 2026 00:18:50 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>On the mechanics of Poké Balls, Pal Spheres, and their ilk</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/34563.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;Playing a few hours of &lt;em&gt;Palworld&lt;/em&gt; (yes, I bought it; I never said I wouldn&apos;t) and thinking about the patent lawsuit by The Pokémon Company over the act of tossing Poké Balls/Pal Spheres to summon a monster into combat also made me think about why such a custom has been a staple of &lt;em&gt;Pokémon&lt;/em&gt; for the many decades the franchise has existed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The obvious answer is because it looks fucking cool. When two Pokémon trainers gear up to battle one another, they need to do something to show anyone watching that they mean business. So they each toss their balls into the ring, release their monsters, and fight!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Well, that&apos;s how it&apos;s depicted in the anime, anyway.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In the 2D &lt;em&gt;Pokémon&lt;/em&gt; games, you don&apos;t actually dramatically &lt;em&gt;throw&lt;/em&gt; your Poké Ball into the arena to summon your Pokémon. Your trainer&apos;s sprite slides off to the side while an animation of a Poké Ball pops into view, followed by the Pokémon itself. In &lt;em&gt;Pokémon Legends Z-A&lt;/em&gt; where you can run around Lumiose City and summon your Pokémon at any time, that&apos;s all there is to it - you open your ball and toss it to the side to release your Pokémon. It&apos;s less exciting, sure, but it&apos;s a few seconds faster and less prone to misfires or dropped balls (in the anime and I think in the 3D games, the Poké Ball opens in mid-air to release the Pokémon).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I assumed the absence of this summoning animation in the full release version of &lt;em&gt;Palworld&lt;/em&gt; was related to the lawsuit, since you only need to press a button to release your Pals, causing them to appear right next to you in a fraction of a second. But then you still need to toss Pal Spheres at weakened Pals to capture them, so the Spheres&apos; functional similarity to the Poké Balls themselves couldn&apos;t have been the issue. (Not that it matters, since &lt;em&gt;Palworld&lt;/em&gt; has been selling like hotcakes on PC and the non-Nintendo consoles since last month, no doubt boosted by disgruntled &lt;em&gt;Pokémon&lt;/em&gt; fans hoping to stick it to the Nintendo/TPC/Game Freak triumvirate as much as appreciating its weird amalgam of other genres.) I think the &quot;throw ball to capture creature&quot; function makes more sense than the &quot;throw ball to release creature&quot; since you have to throw the ball just right so that the part with the switch &lt;em&gt;opens&lt;/em&gt; to allow you to catch your target.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=34563&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/34563.html</comments>
  <category>nintendo switch 2</category>
  <category>game: pokemon legends z-a</category>
  <category>pc</category>
  <category>game: palworld</category>
  <category>game: pokemon</category>
  <category>video games</category>
  <lj:mood>curious</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>0</lj:reply-count>
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<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/34247.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:49:10 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>&quot;I just want to tell all four of you, &apos;Good luck. We&apos;re all counting on you.&apos;&quot;</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/34247.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;Looks like I was off by a few weeks when I guessed Nintendo would wait until late August to do a &lt;em&gt;Fire Emblem: Fortune&apos;s Weave&lt;/em&gt;-focused Nintendo Direct presentation. They did it &lt;em&gt;today&lt;/em&gt; instead, those mad bastards. It makes sense, though, since we&apos;re just over halfway out from the release date announcement and the actual release date. This means I can&apos;t do my countdown gag on Bluesky anymore now that the 22-minute video dropped an avalanche of information about the game to entice prospective buyers (and impatient ones like me who preordered the special edition).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;cut-wrapper&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;display: none;&quot; id=&quot;span-cuttag___1&quot; class=&quot;cuttag&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;b class=&quot;cut-open&quot;&gt;(&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;b class=&quot;cut-text&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/34247.html#cutid1&quot;&gt;And now, my thoughts (major spoiler warning, because...duh, the game&apos;s not out yet)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;b class=&quot;cut-close&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;display: none;&quot; id=&quot;div-cuttag___1&quot; aria-live=&quot;assertive&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=34247&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/34247.html</comments>
  <category>game: fire emblem</category>
  <category>nintendo direct</category>
  <category>game: fire emblem fortune&apos;s weave</category>
  <category>previews</category>
  <category>nintendo switch 2</category>
  <category>spoiler warning</category>
  <lj:music>&quot;The Blaze - Cycle of the Sun&quot; - Fire Emblem: Fortune&apos;s Weave soundtrack</lj:music>
  <lj:mood>satisfied</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>1</lj:reply-count>
</item>
<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/34009.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Tue, 21 Jul 2026 21:27:38 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Fortune cookie bread crumbs</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/34009.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve officially become one of &lt;strong&gt;&quot;those&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;Fire Emblem&lt;/em&gt; fans.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You know...someone who compulsively checks official and unofficial Nintendo-related channels for any new information related to &lt;em&gt;Fire Emblem: Fortune&apos;s Weave&lt;/em&gt; ever since its reappearance in the June 2026 Nintendo Direct.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There&apos;s been a slow but steady drip-feed of information on the cast of the game - Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays on the Japanese Fire Emblem Twitter/X account (link to a &lt;a href=&quot;https://nitter.net/FireEmblemJP&quot;&gt;Twitter mirror site&lt;/a&gt; because the real thing won&apos;t let you view &lt;em&gt;any&lt;/em&gt; posts without an obnoxious &quot;Log in or sign up to read this post&quot; banner getting in the way), and daily English updates on the Nintendo Today app. A profile here, a 30-second-or-less combat clip there, but not too much that gives the whole game away.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Splatoon Raiders&lt;/em&gt; releases later this week, so most of the app&apos;s ad space has been devoted to hyping that up. This leaves late August and early September for &lt;em&gt;Fortune&apos;s Weave&lt;/em&gt; to get its moment in the sun.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Whatever comes my way, I&apos;m here for it. Based on previews alone, my tastes are gravitating toward the nerdy sidekicks Tialla/Tiara and Bonaventure/Bonaparte. And Esmeralda.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=34009&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/34009.html</comments>
  <category>previews</category>
  <category>nintendo switch 2</category>
  <category>game: fire emblem fortune&apos;s weave</category>
  <category>video games</category>
  <category>game: fire emblem</category>
  <lj:mood>nerdy</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>3</lj:reply-count>
</item>
<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/33635.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Fri, 17 Jul 2026 10:12:30 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>A little time away from home does the body (and mind) good</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/33635.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;My dad keeps telling me that I&apos;m a workaholic - that I should take more vacation days. He&apos;s right, of course, but I&apos;ve never felt the desire to travel very often outside of my annual visit to TooManyGames with family and/or friends, and I don&apos;t want to drive a car (refueling is too expensive, roads and drivers are too dangerous, I don&apos;t want to die behind the wheel due to my own nervousness, etc.) This year, my parents invited me to join them for an anniversary getaway to Atlantic City. I haven&apos;t been down there since I was a little boy, so I accepted now that I&apos;m old enough to gamble (AC is probably the second-most famous gambling city in the country behind Las Vegas).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;cut-wrapper&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;display: none;&quot; id=&quot;span-cuttag___1&quot; class=&quot;cuttag&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;b class=&quot;cut-open&quot;&gt;(&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;b class=&quot;cut-text&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/33635.html#cutid1&quot;&gt;An abridged travelogue&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;b class=&quot;cut-close&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;display: none;&quot; id=&quot;div-cuttag___1&quot; aria-live=&quot;assertive&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=33635&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/33635.html</comments>
  <category>vacation</category>
  <category>life</category>
  <lj:mood>refreshed</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>0</lj:reply-count>
</item>
<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/33320.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Sun, 28 Jun 2026 13:43:18 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>TooManyGames 2026</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/33320.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;I made it back to TooManyGames this year. Not having to fly solo this time around made the return trip easier and more fun.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As usual, I focused on bolstering my retro video game collection. Just as modern gaming is unfortunately getting more expensive, with console and computer component prices shooting through the roof thanks to RAM sticks and chips becoming scarce for anything not built for (corpo buzzword) &quot;AI&quot;, I feel like prices on older games are also getting bonkers. Not-complete-in-box NES cartridges selling for triple digits? Please. I feel like I got lucky finding &lt;em&gt;Destiny of an Emperor&lt;/em&gt;, Capcom&apos;s &lt;em&gt;Romance of the Three Kingdoms&lt;/em&gt; RPG, for $50. I also picked up &lt;em&gt;8 Eyes&lt;/em&gt; (a &lt;em&gt;Castlevania&lt;/em&gt; clone where you play as a swordsman who&apos;s also a falconer, and there&apos;s a logic puzzle at the end), &lt;em&gt;Air Fortress&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Skate or Die 2: The Search for Double Trouble&lt;/em&gt; (not all that good, but the copy I bought last year didn&apos;t work), and &lt;em&gt;Ultima: Quest for the Avatar&lt;/em&gt; (a decent rendition of the classic PC RPG; I liked it a lot better than FCI&apos;s adaptations of &lt;em&gt;Ultima III: Exodus&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny&lt;/em&gt;), &lt;em&gt;Super Mario Maker 2&lt;/em&gt; (essentially trading in a PAL copy for an NTSC copy, even though I didn&apos;t need to because the Nintendo Switch isn&apos;t region-locked), &lt;em&gt;Illusion of Gaia&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster&apos;s Hidden Treasure&lt;/em&gt;, and &lt;em&gt;Kirby and the Rainbow Curse&lt;/em&gt; (leaving only &lt;em&gt;Kirby Air Ride&lt;/em&gt; as the only &lt;em&gt;Kirby&lt;/em&gt; game I haven&apos;t at least looked at).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Oh, and I also got to take a selfie with Kyle Hebert (Gohan from Dragon Ball, Aizen from Bleach, Kiba from Naruto, Ryu from Street Fighter, and a bunch of other notable roles), the third voice actor I&apos;ve met at that convention in consecutive years (Colleen O&apos;Shaughnessy in 2024, and Michelle Ruff in 2025). I don&apos;t get very nervous talking to people more famous than myself, but I do get somewhat self-conscious when I look at pictures of myself afterward. I feel that I have a &quot;weird&quot; smile that doesn&apos;t look like my jaw is aligned with the rest of my face.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=33320&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/33320.html</comments>
  <category>voice acting</category>
  <category>toomanygames</category>
  <category>video games</category>
  <category>conventions</category>
  <lj:mood>geeky</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>0</lj:reply-count>
</item>
<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/33258.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Fri, 26 Jun 2026 22:25:39 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Strengthen up that muscle memory!</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/33258.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;I thought I was good at &lt;em&gt;WarioWare: Move It!&lt;/em&gt;, but after returning to the game after unlocking everything, I now realize that I&apos;d been doing at least two of the poses wrong:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;With the &quot;Archer&quot; form, you&apos;re supposed to hold your dominant hand behind you as if you&apos;re pulling on a bowstring or winding up for a knockout punch. I&apos;d been doing it in reverse, holding my left hand back and my right hand forward, wondering why the pool microgame (&quot;Sink the Shot&quot;) felt awkward.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For &quot;Pounce&quot;, the Joy-Con buttons and sticks are supposed to face &lt;em&gt;upward&lt;/em&gt;, not downward. I kept getting it mixed up with the &quot;Discard&quot; stance from &lt;em&gt;WarioWare: Smooth Moves&lt;/em&gt; (&quot;Move It&apos;s&quot; direct predecessor), where you lay the Wii Remote face down.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, I &lt;em&gt;am&lt;/em&gt; getting better at the &quot;Megagame Muscles&quot; challenge (which unlocks after you defeat the final boss), with a high score of about 4700. From some videos I&apos;ve watched, the best possible outcome occurs if you can break 5,000, when Dr. Crygor (or Mike, in two-player mode) gets so buff that he gets drawn in a darker art style.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;And while I didn&apos;t initially like that mini-game&apos;s theme song (mostly because I couldn&apos;t hear any of it over the sounds of the other microgames), I think it&apos;s starting to grow on me. If you asked me whether I preferred the English or Japanese version of the song, I would say English in a heartbeat because, well...it has &lt;em&gt;actual lyrics&lt;/em&gt; that aren&apos;t repetitive. Yeah, it&apos;s a cheesy workout song sung by Mr. Sparkles, the guy who ran an infomercial in &lt;em&gt;WarioWare Gold&lt;/em&gt; where he claimed that a house-mom like 5-Volt could bulk up by lifting her pots and pans like dumbbells (just roll with it), but it has character, damn it!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=33258&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/33258.html</comments>
  <category>game: warioware move it!</category>
  <category>video games</category>
  <category>nintendo switch</category>
  <lj:music>&quot;Megagame Muscles&quot; - WarioWare: Move It! soundtrack</lj:music>
  <lj:mood>embarrassed</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>0</lj:reply-count>
</item>
<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/32846.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Tue, 09 Jun 2026 17:27:29 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>&apos;Tis the season for a fuckton of game announcements</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/32846.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;This weekend sure had a lot of game trailer showcases...some (not I) would say too many, as the demise of E3 has left the pre-summer period wide open for publishers, developers, and game platform holders to fill the void with announcements of reasons to play games on that expensive rig you bought months before prices went all out of whack.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Let&apos;s see...there&apos;s the State of Play, the Xbox Games Showcase, the PC Games Show, the Future Games Show, today&apos;s Nintendo Direct, and many others that I can&apos;t name or have time to watch, all within a four-day span. That&apos;s a lot of video about video games to take in. This is why I think it&apos;s funny that there are so many of these damn things that Steam lumped the PC-centric ones into a &quot;Summer Showcase of Summer Showcases&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I only directly watched the PlayStation and Nintendo shows because I have a PS5 and Switch 2, but not an Xbox Series system (too rich for my blood, and my gaming loft can&apos;t fit any more consoles). The State of Play book-ended its show with presentations for Insomniac&apos;s &lt;em&gt;Wolverine&lt;/em&gt; game and the newest &lt;em&gt;God of War&lt;/em&gt; game. I&apos;m admittedly more interested in the former than the latter because &lt;em&gt;Marvel Rivals&lt;/em&gt; is still fresh in my mind when it comes to good games with Wolverine in them, and I haven&apos;t played &lt;em&gt;God of War: Ragnarök&lt;/em&gt; yet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;On the Nintendo side, there weren&apos;t any big blowout announcements of that caliber, but the show ended with a 30-second teaser for the long-rumored HD remake of &lt;em&gt;Ocarina of Time&lt;/em&gt;, based on one of the best &lt;em&gt;Legend of Zelda&lt;/em&gt; games ever made, and one of the best video games, period. In more immediate release news, I have my eyes on &lt;em&gt;Rhythm Heaven Groove&lt;/em&gt; (early July), &lt;em&gt;Fire Emblem: Fortune&apos;s Weave&lt;/em&gt; (mid-September), and &lt;em&gt;Nintendo Switch Sports Resort&lt;/em&gt; (late October).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There are more additions to my wishlist that I&apos;d like to talk about in more detail, but the ones I just mentioned are set to release exclusively for the platforms that I own, which is why I&apos;m highlighting them now.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=32846&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/32846.html</comments>
  <category>state of play</category>
  <category>video games</category>
  <category>playstation 5</category>
  <category>nintendo switch 2</category>
  <category>nintendo direct</category>
  <lj:mood>excited</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>0</lj:reply-count>
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<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/32612.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Fri, 05 Jun 2026 13:59:26 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Praise the Sun (Goddess?), maybe</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/32612.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;After Capcom fumbled the ball hard with Alex in &lt;em&gt;Street Fighter 6&lt;/em&gt; (he&apos;s still a decent character to play with...just DO NOT talk about his Arcade Mode ending to any Alex fan if you don&apos;t like the sight of angry, embarrassed tears), they picked it backed up by doing something I didn&apos;t think probable:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;They got (some) fans to tolerate Ingrid...including me.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Ingrid occupies a weird space in Capcom lore. She was meant to be the star of the cancelled &lt;em&gt;Capcom Fighting All-Stars&lt;/em&gt; project, and then made her actual debut in the half-baked crossover &lt;em&gt;Capcom Fighting Evolution&lt;/em&gt;. While Ingrid&apos;s inclusion wasn&apos;t even in the top 5 reasons why that game failed, I don&apos;t think her appearances in games like &lt;em&gt;Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Project X Zone 2&lt;/em&gt; were ever going to wash that stink off, especially not a character with godlike powers who could be compared more to the two Athenas from SNK (Athena Asamiya from &lt;em&gt;The King of Fighters&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Psycho Soldier&lt;/em&gt;, and the &quot;goddess&quot; Athena from the arcade game of the same name) than anyone from &lt;em&gt;Street Fighter&lt;/em&gt; canon.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Now that Ingrid has &lt;em&gt;officially&lt;/em&gt; been integrated to the Street Fighter universe, she still looks out of place next to the aforementioned Alex and other returning favorites like Sagat and Crimson Viper, but at least she&apos;s achieved a baseline level of &quot;acceptance&quot; within the community, if the fanart and face swap edits are anything to go by. It helps that her personality is less &quot;generic magical girl&quot; and more &quot;cosmic-level goofball of indeterminate age&quot; now, so...yeah.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=32612&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/32612.html</comments>
  <category>game: street fighter</category>
  <category>playstation 5</category>
  <category>video games</category>
  <lj:mood>amused</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>0</lj:reply-count>
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<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/32180.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Fri, 08 May 2026 12:46:11 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Sometimes early adoption pays off</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/32180.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;I think this is the first video game console generation I&apos;ve ever experienced where the hardware has &lt;em&gt;increased&lt;/em&gt; in price across the board since launch. The PlayStation 5, Xbox Series consoles, and now the Nintendo Switch 2 have all gone up due to economic factors too complex for me to explain or fully comprehend.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My usual game plan is to wait several months for a console to get good games or drop in price before dropping money on it. That isn&apos;t feasible this time around since the median prices of almost &lt;em&gt;everything&lt;/em&gt; have risen in the past year, so I gave in to FOMO and bought my Switch 2 a few months after launch day, but several months before prices spiked. I&apos;m sure I&apos;ll have a rough time holding those Joy-Con 2&apos;s when I have several fingers pointed at myself for contributing to this whole mess.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=32180&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/32180.html</comments>
  <category>nintendo switch 2</category>
  <category>xbox series s/x</category>
  <category>playstation 5</category>
  <category>video games</category>
  <lj:mood>discontent</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>10</lj:reply-count>
</item>
<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/31713.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Mon, 27 Apr 2026 14:24:20 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>&quot;Filthoids&quot;?</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/31713.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;Dear writers/localizers for &lt;em&gt;Duet Night Abyss&lt;/em&gt;: was the term &quot;Filthoids&quot; really the best name you could use to describe your game&apos;s Heartless-type monsters? That sounds like something you&apos;d hear in a C-grade horror movie or a B-grade school comedy from the &apos;80s!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=31713&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/31713.html</comments>
  <category>video games</category>
  <category>game: duet night abyss</category>
  <lj:mood>embarrassed</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>2</lj:reply-count>
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<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/30675.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2026 23:03:11 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>He&apos;s (still) a Mega Man-iac</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/30675.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;cut-wrapper&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;display: none;&quot; id=&quot;span-cuttag___1&quot; class=&quot;cuttag&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;b class=&quot;cut-open&quot;&gt;(&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;b class=&quot;cut-text&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/30675.html#cutid1&quot;&gt;My traditional &apos;serious&apos; April Fools&apos; Day post&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;b class=&quot;cut-close&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;display: none;&quot; id=&quot;div-cuttag___1&quot; aria-live=&quot;assertive&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=30675&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/30675.html</comments>
  <category>nintendo switch</category>
  <category>game: mega man</category>
  <category>video games</category>
  <lj:music>&quot;We&apos;re the Robots&quot; - Mega Man 9 soundtrack</lj:music>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>0</lj:reply-count>
</item>
<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/30218.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Fri, 20 Mar 2026 14:50:32 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>My thoughts on DLSS 5: Not groovy, man</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/30218.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;Nvidia&apos;s demo of its latest iteration of DLSS graphic filtering tech almost instantly became the butt of social media jokes when it showed off a demo that applied it to Grace Ashcroft from &lt;em&gt;Resident Evil Requiem&lt;/em&gt;, landing her right in that &quot;AI-generated uncanny valley&quot; of characters with too sleek and shiny skin that I&apos;ve seen in a lot of games in the last two years or so.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m reminded once again of a line from &quot;We Are Neighbors&quot; by the Chi-Lites (which was sampled by Groove Armada for their song &quot;If Everybody Looked the Same&quot;):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;If everybody looked the same&lt;/p&gt;
  
  &lt;p&gt;We&apos;d get tired of looking at each other&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The original song promotes racial unity and harmony, but I feel like it could easily be repurposed to criticize the race to create a quick-and-dirty &quot;universal graphic beauty standard&quot; in which every game or other piece of art using this new tech has the same aesthetic. I have a gaming PC that can run most big games from 2023, but I still need to be economical with my settings so my fans don&apos;t constantly rattle while I play. And since it sounds like DLSS 5 applies these smoothing filters on the fly, I wouldn&apos;t be surprised if it needed a crazy amount of energy to run. I don&apos;t think I&apos;ll ever need to use that stuff, but I&apos;ll happily sit back and look at other people&apos;s image memes dunking on it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=30218&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/30218.html</comments>
  <category>tech</category>
  <category>random thoughts</category>
  <category>art</category>
  <category>pc</category>
  <category>video games</category>
  <lj:music>&quot;We Are Neighbors&quot; - The Chi-Lites</lj:music>
  <lj:mood>pessimistic</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>0</lj:reply-count>
</item>
<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/29458.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Sat, 21 Feb 2026 00:12:14 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>I put on my robe and witch hat</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/29458.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;The upcoming &lt;em&gt;Witch Hat Atelier&lt;/em&gt; animated adaptation just got &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc26AwBXlUE&quot;&gt;a new trailer&lt;/a&gt; and a release date: April 6. Needless to say, I&apos;m excited.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I know this was supposed to start airing last year, but I&apos;m still hopeful that this will do the series justice. It&apos;s well animated, which is a good thing because the manga is famous for its intricate artwork. (You should read it if you have the chance. It&apos;s very good.)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=29458&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/29458.html</comments>
  <category>anime/manga</category>
  <category>anime/manga: witch hat atelier</category>
  <lj:mood>hopeful</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>0</lj:reply-count>
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<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/29430.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:52:25 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Language barrier? What&apos;s that?</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/29430.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m always amused by voice-acted games where characters speak different languages (example: English and Japanese), but they can understand each other perfectly and respond accordingly.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Tekken&lt;/em&gt; games from &lt;em&gt;6&lt;/em&gt; onward are weird about this, since I think that starting from &lt;em&gt;Tekken Tag Tournament 2&lt;/em&gt;, most characters are voiced by actors who speak the character&apos;s native language (except for Ling Xiaoyu, who&apos;s always spoken Japanese by default in every game she&apos;s appeared in), and I tried not to scratch my head in story cutscenes where any of the Mishimas (Japanese) talked to someone like, say...Nina Williams (English). I haven&apos;t played &lt;em&gt;Tekken 8&lt;/em&gt; yet, but I&apos;ve watched a funny pre-fight cutscene between Reina Mishima (yes, she&apos;s part of that family, too) and guest character Clive from &lt;em&gt;Final Fantasy XVI&lt;/em&gt; where she compliments him on how lifelike his cosplay is, and he shrugs his shoulders and responds, &quot;What the hell is cosplay?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Playing more of &lt;em&gt;Donkey Kong Bananza&lt;/em&gt; cemented this, as Pauline is the only character in the game (that I know of) who gets fully voiced dialogue while everyone else is ananimal or other non-human creature. She has no problem talking to or understanding any of them. Maybe it&apos;s because she spends the first hour or so of the game trapped in the form of a rock...?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=29430&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/29430.html</comments>
  <category>voice acting</category>
  <category>game: donkey kong</category>
  <category>video games</category>
  <category>game: tekken</category>
  <category>game: donkey kong bananza</category>
  <lj:music>&quot;Kong Bananza&quot; - Donkey Kong Bananza soundtrack</lj:music>
  <lj:mood>amused</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>0</lj:reply-count>
</item>
<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/29041.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 22:33:15 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>So many farming games, not enough plots to grow them</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/29041.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;Damn it...why did &lt;em&gt;Starsand Island&apos;s&lt;/em&gt; Early Access phase have to drop just two weeks before the last major &lt;em&gt;Fields of Mistria&lt;/em&gt; update before its full launch (which I hope will land before this Christmas)? This looks as much &quot;my jam&quot; as &lt;em&gt;Mistria&lt;/em&gt; does...and the &lt;em&gt;Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar&lt;/em&gt; HD remake...and &lt;em&gt;Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma&lt;/em&gt;...and I just noticed I have a damn lot of farming games in my collection. Maybe I should play more of those before adding another one, and maybe wait to see what features it will add. (sigh)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=29041&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/29041.html</comments>
  <category>game: sos grand bazaar</category>
  <category>game: rune factory</category>
  <category>video games</category>
  <category>game: rf guardians of azuma</category>
  <category>game: fields of mistria</category>
  <category>game: starsand island</category>
  <category>game: story of seasons</category>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>3</lj:reply-count>
</item>
<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/28691.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2026 23:51:55 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>I definitely understand the a-peel of DK Bananza</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/28691.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;On my birthday (this past Sunday), almost one month since I bought my Nintendo Switch 2, my parents gave me &lt;em&gt;Donkey Kong Bananza&lt;/em&gt; as a gift. It was one of the reasons I wanted to buy the console in the first place - I saw it on the dedicated Nintendo Direct back in June 2025 and thought it looked like a lot of fun.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;cut-wrapper&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;display: none;&quot; id=&quot;span-cuttag___1&quot; class=&quot;cuttag&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;b class=&quot;cut-open&quot;&gt;(&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;b class=&quot;cut-text&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/28691.html#cutid1&quot;&gt;Don&apos;t reject Mario, but return to Donke anyway (mild spoilers)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;b class=&quot;cut-close&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;display: none;&quot; id=&quot;div-cuttag___1&quot; aria-live=&quot;assertive&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=28691&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/28691.html</comments>
  <category>minor spoiler warning</category>
  <category>nintendo switch 2</category>
  <category>game: donkey kong bananza</category>
  <category>video games</category>
  <category>game: donkey kong</category>
  <lj:mood>pleased</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>0</lj:reply-count>
</item>
<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/28392.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Fri, 23 Jan 2026 22:39:21 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Snowflake Challenge 2026-12</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/28392.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Challenge #12&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Make an appreciation post to those who enhance your fandom life. Appreciate them in bullet points, prose, poetry, a moodboard, a song... whatever moves you!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m not a moodboard person (God knows I&apos;m well past the point where I should cultivate my digital art talents for more than just cropping official artwork for avatars), so in place of images, I&apos;d like to give a collective shout-out to several friends in a Discord group I&apos;ve visited almost every day for the past five years (including &lt;span style=&apos;white-space: nowrap;&apos;&gt;&lt;a href=&apos;https://sarajayechan.dreamwidth.org/profile&apos;&gt;&lt;img src=&apos;https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png&apos; alt=&apos;[personal profile] &apos; width=&apos;17&apos; height=&apos;17&apos; style=&apos;vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;&apos; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&apos;https://sarajayechan.dreamwidth.org/&apos;&gt;&lt;b&gt;sarajayechan&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, &lt;span style=&apos;white-space: nowrap;&apos;&gt;&lt;a href=&apos;https://meltherandom.dreamwidth.org/profile&apos;&gt;&lt;img src=&apos;https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png&apos; alt=&apos;[personal profile] &apos; width=&apos;17&apos; height=&apos;17&apos; style=&apos;vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;&apos; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&apos;https://meltherandom.dreamwidth.org/&apos;&gt;&lt;b&gt;meltherandom&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, &lt;span style=&apos;white-space: nowrap;&apos;&gt;&lt;a href=&apos;https://cye-of-the-torrent.dreamwidth.org/profile&apos;&gt;&lt;img src=&apos;https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png&apos; alt=&apos;[personal profile] &apos; width=&apos;17&apos; height=&apos;17&apos; style=&apos;vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;&apos; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&apos;https://cye-of-the-torrent.dreamwidth.org/&apos;&gt;&lt;b&gt;cye_of_the_torrent&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, and others whose DW journals I don&apos;t know exist). Without them, I&apos;d...sadly not have anyone else to talk to regularly, since most other social networks make it so easy for messages to get lost in the noise.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I mean, there &lt;em&gt;are&lt;/em&gt; other places I could go to talk nonsense about fandoms like Fire Emblem, Pokemon, Ninja Turtles, RWBY, but the direct access and camaraderie are what I stick around for. And you&apos;re all willing to tolerate my occasional &quot;I am very smart&quot; attempts at deep analysis &lt;em&gt;and&lt;/em&gt; my occasional &quot;I am very angry&quot; rants without turning on the sprinklers.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So, uh...yeah. Thanks for all that.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=28392&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/28392.html</comments>
  <category>snowflake challenge 2026</category>
  <category>appreciation post</category>
  <category>friends</category>
  <category>memes</category>
  <lj:mood>loved</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>5</lj:reply-count>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/28035.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Mon, 12 Jan 2026 01:41:36 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Snowflake Challenge 2026-6</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/28035.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://snowflake-challenge.dreamwidth.org/&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://images.squidge.org/images/2024/12/28/sfc2.png&quot; alt=&quot;two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Challenge #6&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Top 10 Challenge.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Top 10 Cartoons I Watched When I Was Younger (i.e. the 1980s and 1990s) that I Still Look Back Upon Fondly&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Darkwing Duck&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Tiny Toon Adventures&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the 1987 series)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Animaniacs&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dragon Ball Z&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Beavis and Butt-head&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The Simpsons (after Season 4)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Batman: The Animated Series&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Pinky and the Brain&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Futurama&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Honorable Mentions: Beetlejuice, Garfield and Friends, Ronin Warriors&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=28035&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/28035.html</comments>
  <lj:mood>nostalgic</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>15</lj:reply-count>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/27739.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Sun, 11 Jan 2026 23:34:18 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Another Fire Emblem fic search</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/27739.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;Last year, I swept the Internet looking for &lt;a href=&quot;https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/23130.html&quot;&gt;the most popular fanfics in the wider Fire Emblem fandom&lt;/a&gt;, including all of its sub-series. It was a long and exhausting process, and I think I should have started by narrowing my search to &lt;em&gt;just&lt;/em&gt; the two major fic archives at Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own. &lt;em&gt;Fire Emblem: Three Houses&lt;/em&gt; fic fandom is overwhelmingly tilted toward the AO3 side of things, as I found over 37,000 stories there (across all languages) compared to the almost 1,800 on Fanfiction.net when filtering to only show fics set in &quot;Fódlan&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I conducted my experiment to move beyond raw numbers and look at what stories fans were actually discussing outside of those two websites. Unsurprisingly, when I &lt;em&gt;did&lt;/em&gt; just look at which fics appeared on the first pages of rankings in popularity metrics (likes, comments, favorites, and bookmarks), the results mostly matched my discoveries from my earlier, wider search.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Emperor and the Goddess&lt;/em&gt; (which I don&apos;t have an opinion on because I haven&apos;t read enough of it), &lt;em&gt;Savior King&lt;/em&gt; (which I&apos;ve said many negative things about and seems to be very divisive among the general fandom), and &lt;em&gt;An Eagle Among Lions&lt;/em&gt; (which I &lt;em&gt;have&lt;/em&gt; read and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it despite its schlocky premise) are something of a &quot;Big Three&quot; on the Archive. Technically, it&apos;s more of a &quot;Big Four&quot; - even though &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archiveofourown.org/works/20580137&quot;&gt;Tea Is for Teacher&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; didn&apos;t make my general list in 2025 because it didn&apos;t get as many outside recommendations as &lt;em&gt;Emperor&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Eagle&lt;/em&gt;, or &lt;em&gt;SK&lt;/em&gt;, it was still popular enough to be in the top 20 of all of AO3&apos;s key metrics.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;On Fanfiction.net, finding the &quot;hottest&quot; fics was harder because so few of the stories in the top 25 are complete or still updating as of last year. The only ones I found on there that have received any kind of buzz are &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13584079/1/Those-Who-Can-t-Teach&quot;&gt;Those Who Can&apos;t, Teach&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; (which is &lt;a href=&quot;https://archiveofourown.org/works/24174205&quot;&gt;posting all future updates on AO3&lt;/a&gt;) and &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13412389/1/Stolen-Remedy&quot;&gt;Stolen Remedy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;. Has anyone said anything about &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13483333/1/Idiosyncrasy&quot;&gt;Idiosyncrasy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;? Or &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13455810/1/One-More-Ending&quot;&gt;One More Ending&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;? Or &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13558370/1/Fodlan-s-Fell-Dragon&quot;&gt;Fodlan&apos;s Fell Dragon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;? Please let me know if you have and if you think any of them are worth reading.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=27739&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/27739.html</comments>
  <category>game: fire emblem</category>
  <category>fandom</category>
  <category>fan fiction</category>
  <category>research</category>
  <category>game: fire emblem three houses</category>
  <lj:mood>working</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>0</lj:reply-count>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/27566.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Wed, 07 Jan 2026 22:07:45 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Snowflake Challenge 2026-4</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/27566.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Challenge #4: Rec Your Last Page&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Any website that you like, be it fanfiction, art, social media, or something a bit more eccentric!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Aha! I have the &lt;em&gt;perfect&lt;/em&gt; website to highlight for this journal entry.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I present to you the &lt;a href=&quot;https://houses.fedatamine.com/en-us/&quot;&gt;FE3H Datamining Project&lt;/a&gt;, a mostly complete dump of every line of dialogue, profile, and item text in &lt;em&gt;Fire Emblem: Three Houses&lt;/em&gt;. Any time I need to research a bit of game lore to back up a discussion, or I just need a refresher on the game&apos;s events to fuel my writing project, this is where I go.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=27566&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/27566.html</comments>
  <category>game: fire emblem three houses</category>
  <category>memes</category>
  <category>websites</category>
  <category>snowflake challenge 2026</category>
  <category>game: fire emblem</category>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>7</lj:reply-count>
</item>
<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/27192.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Mon, 05 Jan 2026 23:09:32 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Snowflake Challenge 2026-3</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/27192.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;Let&apos;s see what we have this time...&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;(checks prompt)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Write a love letter to fandom. It might be to fandom in general, to a particular fandom, favourite character, anything at all.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;cut-wrapper&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;display: none;&quot; id=&quot;span-cuttag___1&quot; class=&quot;cuttag&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;b class=&quot;cut-open&quot;&gt;(&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;b class=&quot;cut-text&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/27192.html#cutid1&quot;&gt;Fight, Mega Man fandom! For everlasting peace!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;b class=&quot;cut-close&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;display: none;&quot; id=&quot;div-cuttag___1&quot; aria-live=&quot;assertive&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=27192&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/27192.html</comments>
  <category>snowflake challenge 2026</category>
  <category>game: mega man</category>
  <category>memes</category>
  <lj:music>Mega Man 3 Title Screen Theme</lj:music>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>6</lj:reply-count>
</item>
<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/27113.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Sun, 04 Jan 2026 19:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Four days into 2026, two new books finished, and two rejections</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/27113.html</link>
  <description>Well, this is disappointing. Four days into the new year, and I already have two books to toss onto the rejection pile. I guess that&apos;s the gamble you take when you pick up random isekai and LitRPG novels from Amazon Kindle Unlimited because its recommendation algorithm thinks I might like them because I read &lt;em&gt;So I&apos;m a Spider, So What?&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;The Rising of the Shield Hero&lt;/em&gt; once a few years ago.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;cut-wrapper&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;display: none;&quot; id=&quot;span-cuttag___1&quot; class=&quot;cuttag&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;b class=&quot;cut-open&quot;&gt;(&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;b class=&quot;cut-text&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/27113.html#cutid1&quot;&gt;Paralyze, Poison, Sleep, repeat ad nauseam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;b class=&quot;cut-close&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;display: none;&quot; id=&quot;div-cuttag___1&quot; aria-live=&quot;assertive&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;cut-wrapper&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;display: none;&quot; id=&quot;span-cuttag___2&quot; class=&quot;cuttag&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;b class=&quot;cut-open&quot;&gt;(&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;b class=&quot;cut-text&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/27113.html#cutid2&quot;&gt;Slave Harem in Another World (Against My Wishes)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;b class=&quot;cut-close&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;display: none;&quot; id=&quot;div-cuttag___2&quot; aria-live=&quot;assertive&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway, I&apos;m sticking both of these into the &amp;quot;This Just Isn&apos;t for Me&amp;quot; bin, but I suppose I&apos;d have to give the edge (pun not intended) to &lt;em&gt;Failure Frame&lt;/em&gt; here, if only because Touka Mimori &lt;em&gt;does things&lt;/em&gt; instead of just having things done to him. I hope that my first week of 2026 brings me something new that I can recommend unconditionally.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=27113&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/27113.html</comments>
  <category>books</category>
  <category>anime/manga</category>
  <category>anime/manga: failure frame</category>
  <category>reviews</category>
  <category>anime/manga: slow life (i wish!)</category>
  <lj:music>&quot;Play&quot; - Tokyo Machine</lj:music>
  <lj:mood>uncomfortable</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>0</lj:reply-count>
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<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/26878.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Thu, 01 Jan 2026 22:28:13 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Snowflake Challenge 2026-1</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/26878.html</link>
  <description>&lt;a href=&quot;https://snowflake-challenge.dreamwidth.org/&quot; _fcksavedurl=&quot;https://snowflake-challenge.dreamwidth.org/&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://images.squidge.org/images/2024/12/28/sfc2.png&quot; _fcksavedurl=&quot;https://images.squidge.org/images/2024/12/28/sfc2.png&quot; alt=&quot;two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well, would you look at that...a journal meme that gives me an excuse to blog. Okay, I&apos;m game.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And it looks like today&apos;s prompt is:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Icebreaker Challenge: Introduce yourself. Tell us why you&apos;re doing the challenge, and what you hope to gain from it.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Right...so, uh. I&apos;ve gone by lots of aliases in my way-too-long time on the Internet, but on here, I&apos;m Waltzoid. This is the first time I&apos;ve done this challenge, and I tend to blog only when inspiration strikes, which has not been very often lately. Truth is, I&apos;m doing it because a few of my friends are doing it and it looks like fun.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As for my interests...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&apos;ve been a video game junkie since I learned to walk, so I&apos;ve absorbed lots of useless trivia and become a fan of countless fandoms. It&apos;s only been 17 hours (local time) since the year started, so I haven&apos;t settled on anything yet. I&apos;m planning to buy a Nintendo Switch 2 this month in anticipation of &lt;i&gt;Fire Emblem: Fortune&apos;s Weave&lt;/i&gt;. &lt;i&gt;Three Houses&lt;/i&gt; is my favorite game in the series, and I&apos;m cautiously optimistic that this one will be worth the wait, even though I&apos;ve only seen the trailer from the September 2025 Nintendo Direct.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Right now, I&apos;m focused on reading &lt;i&gt;Delicious in Dungeon&lt;/i&gt; and a bunch of random isekai and litRPG novels with long-winded subtitles that I&apos;m borrowing from Amazon Kindle Unlimited. Case in point for the latter: the first book I read this year is called &lt;i&gt;Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything By Using Low-Level Spells&lt;/i&gt;. The first volume sets the plot up as a darker, edgier, and less self-aware copy of &lt;i&gt;Arifureta: From Commonplace to World&apos;s Strongest&lt;/i&gt;, and after reading half of Volume 1 of &lt;i&gt;Failure Frame&lt;/i&gt;, I feel like I should have started with &lt;i&gt;Arifureta&lt;/i&gt; instead.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My main goal this year is to take notes more often so I can better understand what I&apos;ve been playing/reading/watching/etc. and &lt;i&gt;maybe&lt;/i&gt; post about them if I feel strongly about them when I&apos;m finished.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=26878&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/26878.html</comments>
  <category>snowflake challenge 2026</category>
  <category>memes</category>
  <lj:mood>nerdy</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>10</lj:reply-count>
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<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/26478.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Thu, 25 Dec 2025 23:04:42 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>A Delicious (in Dungeon) Christmas to You</title>
  <link>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/26478.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;Every year, I get older and older, and my Christmas wish list gets shorter and shorter. It&apos;s hard to decide on what to ask your parents (or Santa) when you have a modest income and easy access to online storefronts year-round.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Fortunately, there really was only one thing that caught my eye this year: a complete 14-volume box set of Delicious in Dungeon. I read the first two or three volumes as eBooks and watched the first 15 episodes of the anime adaptation (and you should watch and/or read this if you have the time), but it&apos;s even sweeter that I can read the whole series anytime I want. It even came in a box shaped like a mimic when you open it. Mad props to whoever designed this thing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=waltzoid&amp;ditemid=26478&quot; width=&quot;30&quot; height=&quot;12&quot; alt=&quot;comment count unavailable&quot; style=&quot;vertical-align: middle;&quot;/&gt; comments</description>
  <comments>https://waltzoid.dreamwidth.org/26478.html</comments>
  <category>christmas</category>
  <category>holidays</category>
  <category>anime/manga: delicious in dungeon</category>
  <category>anime/manga</category>
  <lj:music>&quot;Unmei&quot; - sumika (Delicious in Dungeon 2nd Opening Theme)</lj:music>
  <lj:mood>grateful</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>1</lj:reply-count>
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