Samurai Equine

Hello there, my crowd! Welcome to my Weekly Musings: Red Edition. 

[I ❤ JAPAN] -- [I ❤ THE COLOR RED] -- [I ❤ CELESTIA]

What a busy weekend!  Sorry this is a day little late, my crowd. I was so Sunday night, that I just ran out of time to post this. Better late than never, right?

 It's movie time!  I just saw Wonder Woman 1984. I’ve been hearing people say bad things about this movie, but I have no idea why, because I thought this movie was fantastic! I had a wonderful time watching it! If an internet critic that I all ready trust has something to say about it, then I’ll look into it. Otherwise, right now, I deeply enjoyed it. Though I admit, part of the fun of watching this movie is picking out little moments where the situation could have been resolved a little faster. I felt like a writer for HISHE. Still, despite some of the more corny or questionable moments, I enjoyed this movie just the same. And that cameo at the end? Heck yeah! I honestly don’t mind having this movie associated with my birth year.

 Spent time with my uncle over the weekend. We had a lot to do. Not sure how I lost sound in my surround sound speakers, but we've pretty much fixed that. There is still some audio discrepancy, but I am going to try and fix that on my own. If I can't, either something has gone wrong with the speakers or the receiver has finally crapped out. But we did all this to try and figure out what was wrong with my record player. We've narrowed it down, and we both agree that it just needs a new needle head. Also, my uncle is trying to get me an adapter for my television so I can finally mount it. We thought we found one at Walmart, but I'm not sure it'll work. He's going to buy a different one online instead. There's also been other little things here and there that have been occupying my time, but they all add up. Things like reorganizing space in my house, helping mother clean her car, managing bills, went to Starbucks, etc.

 NEW YEARS!!!  That's the biggest thing that happened this week, isn't it? We said goodbye to 2020, and we've officially welcomed 2021. My New Years party was pretty nice. This time, it was just mother and I. However, we made the most of it. We recreated my grandmother's holiday cider/punch in her honor. We're going to carry on these traditions as much as we can, even if she's gone. I stayed up past midnight, as usual. Played some rock music. I made the most of it!

 And now it's time for another... NEW YEARS ROUND UP!
This is where I reflect on the major events of the year that just passed by (2020), and HOO-BOY! What a year that was, huh? Let's go...
First, the negative stuff...

• COVID-19. Corona Virus. For once, I'm not even going to talk all the celebrities and famous people we've lost along the way. Is there really any need to? It's nothing compared to the countless number of people who have died or are currently suffering from this virus. Sure, at the end of the year, there has been a ray of hope. Vaccines are being shipped out, according to the news. It may take a while before the general public can get some, so we're still in lockdown right now. But at least there is hope of finally turning this around, no matter how slim.
• This year, my grandmother died. It's a loss that hits way harder than others because this was a really close member of the family. She didn't die from the virus; she died because of other problems. However, my mother and others blame the virus for delaying the medical treatments she needed. I think what hurts the most was that, for a short moment, she was almost fully recovered and looking forward to getting back into her life. And suddenly, complete internal failure and massive blood loss. All of it was enough to take her away. But if it means anything, at least she was able to go before any of her kids...
• My aunt had a lot of health scares. She was in and out of the hospital many times, and for a while, it looked like she was not going to make it. It must have put a lot of stress on my grandmother while she was alive. And after my grandmother passed, one of my uncle's nearly caught COVID, but thankfully his test results came out negative.
• As for me, my health took a sudden dip. Sudden pains revealed that I have an irritated kidney. I regret that I had to go through all this so close to the holiday season. I wish it could have waited, but it just couldn't. However, what I regret even more is how the doctors couldn't find the cause of the problem after so many tests and scans. I've taken meds and the problem is a bit more manageable now, but I still hate how it all amounted to practically nothing.
• My mother lost a renter, and the new ones that have come in have torn up the renting space without completing renovations. We are hoping that things will get resolved soon, because I'd hate for my mother to have to clean up the demo they started.
• Speaking of, the hospital that my mother works for got bought out by a bigger hospital. She's still sorting out all the new changes and what not. For a while, we weren't sure this was actually going to happen. We thought there was a law preventing one hospital being the only option in town, but I guess not.
• DeviantArt has gone to shit because of one simple thing... ECLIPSE THEME! This crappy new design layout has made it virtually IMPOSSIBLE to post big, detailed journal entries like I use to. This new theme has shown that the staff DO NOT CARE about any of its users. They don't care about preserving classic theme. They only want to keep up this new theme, and any technical support they provide is for their benefit, not ours.
• Team Four Star dropped their Dragon Ball Z abridged series after finishing the Perfect Cell saga... Personally, I would have wanted them to keep going. I wanted to see what Abridged Super would look like. However, creative differences and all that. Farewell, DBZA. You were a pure source and fun and enjoyment.
• Ultimately, I had to say goodbye to the Henshin Justice Unlimited forum. As a Tokusatsu fan, I use to LOVE going there. However, just before it went down and the forum was forced to change serves, I was made aware just how toxic that forum was. The place has VERY few people still there, and the few that are there are all grumps that are ready to tear you down in an instant! Now I still have an account there, but the forum going down was the perfect opportunity to pack my bags and say goodbye. It's done wonders for my mental health, and I can find way more positive toku fans elsewhere.

And now the POSITIVE stuff!

• I joined Twitter! Barely use it, but I'm on there now. And I even have a LiveJournal! Hopefully I'll be able to update that more soon. I've stalled on it as of late...
• I started a BIG roleplay on the MLP Forum called "The Town That Friendship Forgot". And so far, it's been a massive success! I did NOT expect it to be this big. It's still going, and I am so grateful to all who are involved.
• The MLP forum got a new layout design, and it's awesome! Might need some tweaking, but it's smoother than before. At least it wasn't a change so drastic that it became anti-intuitive.
• I helped remodel my mother's kitchen! Did most of the work, too.
• I caught up on some old stuff that I had been meaning to revisit, mostly Kamen Rider Decade and Kamen Rider Blade. Had a great experience. The former is reason why I opened a LiveJournal, to hopefully explain it since it left a lot of fans confused. However, I might also use LiveJournal to give thoughts on other Tokustatsu titles. Speaking of...
• This was a HUGE year for international fans of Tokusatsu! Thanks to Shout! Factory, we can now stream the original Kamen Rider TV show from the 70's, and Kamen Rider Kuuga. Still waiting on Agito, like they teased... Toei made an international YouTube channel to release various classic Tokusatsu titles with English subs. However, the translation and video quality are... questionable. But Tsuburaya has really been going all out! They've been reclaiming Ultraman, and with Mill Creek's help, there are streamable Ultraman titles with English subs all over! They even have a YouTube channel, which is now showing Gridman episodes too. Could this mean a physical release is going to happen in the future?
• Sonic the Hedgehog also had a big year. The major highlight: The live action movie! It was so good. The movie everyone doubted ended up being one of the best video game movie adaptations in a long time. And as a cherry on top, some long-lost music from the Sonic OVA was finally unearthed and made public!
• It's been an interesting year for animation and TV shows hasn't it? I know movies have been slowly migrating to streaming instead of theaters. I saw the finales for shows like Rise of the TMNT, the She-Ra Netflix reboot, Steven Universe Future, and so much more. I saw the fans struggle with "female Doctor Who", mostly because the stories just aren't what the fans wanted. And I've gotten more invested in Transformers recently thanks to Cyberverse and War for Cybertron. And that's barely scratching the surface of everything out there.
• Though it's been fought with difficulty, we are getting a new president here in America. That's all I'm going to say about that, because I know about the rules against politics. (Admins, PLEASE don't lock this status update!)
• ...And while not extremely positive, I still have no idea what to do about the Reddit user that has my username.  ...Help?

 Saber 16: Nothing’s Sacred Sword!  Well, this could have been avoided if Saber had told his friends about what happened in that Wonder World sooner... Honestly though, I don’t know how to feel about this episode! There’s a Sword of Light, and that was kind of predictable and lame. Saber’s friends were mislead into betraying him, and that makes the story more interesting and epic. He was saved by a character that was previously revealed, and that’s kind of lame. However, Saber’s story has been turned into a solo hero story again, and that’s kind of awesome? I am so torn about it. I think I might like it more if it weren’t for the next episode previews.

 Kiramager 37: Stuck in a Prism of the Mind!  Wow. Yet again, another episode that I’m not sure how to feel about, and I can’t even blame the episode preview on it this time. Crunchula is back, and they found a dues ex machina way of doing it, which is lame. Thankfully, said mcguffin isn’t what brings about the surprise revelation at the end, so that’s cool. Speaking of, Yodonna being Emperor Yodon is lame, especially when Yodonna’s just been a generic villain up till now. If I’m suppose to feel anything for Yodonna, sorry but I don’t. However, the story is progressing again, so that’s something. Just wow… At the end of the previous week, I was only looking forward to Kamen Rider Saber episode 15. And now, at the end of this week, I GOTTA see the next episodes for both shows!

 So I guess before I go, I should talk about New Years resolutions... Not sure what to say this time, honestly. Usually, I follow a simple method: Keep your resolutions easy and simple. Aim low so that it'll be easy to complete. Don't aim high and then beat yourself up because you couldn't do it. However, the world still isn't in the best of situations right now. Because of that, I really don't know what to plan for, even if I low-ball. So far, the only plans I have are to update my LiveJournal and possibly close out my DA account. I'll still have it, but I think I'm just going to stop being social there. It's become something that has little meaning to me. Sad, but that's how it is now. Thankfully over Christmas and New Years break, I managed to catch up on a backlog of YouTube videos, so now I'll definitely have more time to actually go to DA, check the months-worth of messages I have, and then start closing stuff down.

That's it for now, my crowd.  Take care, and let's make 2021 the best we possibly can.

In 1997, Will Smith released a song called "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It". It was a really popular song at the time. A couple years or so later, someone made a remix of it, and I found that remix in YouTube again recently! Honestly, I don't care about this fan-made remix, but it has been bugging me where this vocal sample they used came from. It's the sample that goes "I don't know about you, but there ain't no doubt about... Doubt about it..." I've tried to find the source, and all search results come up negative because the search engines think I am looking for something else. I tried using SoundHound to identify that vocal sample; nothing. Maybe some day I'll figure it out, but for now, it's a mystery. For now I am stuck with this song that (according to YouTube) is called "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It (So So Def Remix)".