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Welp, It Finally Arrived
Nov. 21st, 2025 11:51 pmI suspected some of my grumpier moments this week were PMS, and tonight proved them right, as I got my period right after my workout -- and, fortunately, right before I took my shower, so I didn't ruin any clothes. Not exactly enthused that I got it right before a Cleaning & Laundry Saturday, but on the other hand, dealing with it at work would be more annoying, so... And at least this means it should be over before the long Thanksgiving weekend, which is a plus. Still, though, it's being an annoyance now, so let me get the daily write-up done and posted --
Work – It was a long, fairly boring Friday to end the week – I did the GL, I answered one call from someone checking on if their pledge was paid off or not (it was), I looked up a new phone number for a donor who’d overpaid (as the one we had on file was out of service and we didn’t have an e-mail address), and then basically the entire rest of the day was obituaries, merging duplicates, and doing crossword puzzles in the paper to look busy. The latter helped keep the day from dragging TOO much, but I was still very glad to get out of there!
...and then, after a mostly-clear ride down the highway (just a bit of slowdown near the beginning with people trying to get into different lanes and such), I hit the main drag and ended up crawling back to the house because of all the cars. *grumbles* I hate RI traffic, seriously...but I made it home in one piece, and now it is the weekend, yay. Granted, it’s a cleaning weekend where I have my period, but – still.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – hopped back on the bike for the last time this week, pedaling my way through The Wrong Trousers with commentary from Nick Park, Bob Baker (his co-writer), and Steve Box (his co-animator)! As I said I would yesterday. *nods* It was fun to revisit the original short that introduced everyone’s favorite penguin villain, particularly with the commentary – here’s some of the highlights –
A) Apparently, when they sat down to record the commentary, Nick and Bob were working on the script for what would become The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit! And they were actually looking back at The Wrong Trousers because they thought it was the best of the W&G shorts – they specifically praised the slow opening with Gromit having his breakfast and crossing the day off the calendar and getting the mail because it let you get a sense of what life was like in the house before everything kicked off
B) There was also loads of praise for the music – Julian Nott scored this short (along with the others), and the boys loved how he made everything feel very cinematic while keeping in stuff like the brass band in the main theme that made W&G what it was
C) The three were NOT afraid to call Wallace out for being kind of a dick during the short, pointing out that the Techno-Trousers that he gifted to Gromit were really a gift for HIM (because it saved him having to take Gromit out for walkies) and noting that Gromit was VERY quick to forgive him at the end; on the other hand, they did express sympathy for Wallace getting stuck in the Techno-Trousers when Feathers dropped him into them, allowing that it probably hurt (they actually designed it with larger legs in storyboarding, but it got slimmed down when they made the actual models)
D) Feathers McGraw wasn’t originally conceived as a VILLAIN-villain – he was originally just an “annoying nephew” character disrupting the house ecosystem and irritating Gromit. They quickly discovered they couldn’t turn that into a full story, though – it was Peter Lord (one of the founders of Aardman) who ultimately suggested making him a thief, which really kicked things off
E) That scene where Gromit uses the Techno-Trousers to hang upside-down and paint the ceiling of his room? Apparently he was genuinely upside-down in that bit! Don’t know how they pulled it off, but damn
F) The original Feathers McGraw was TINY – about two inches tall! Though he had a bigger model made specifically for all those shots where you see him through the museum window, out on the ledge, so they could properly animate him sweating. (I also noticed that the original Feathers looked much shorter and stumpier than the Vengeance Most Fowl one – but then again, I think ALL the models were a bit shorter and stumpier than they would be in later shorts. Wallace in particular looked kinda short to me when stood next to the Techno-Trousers)
G) The interior of the wardrobe that Wallace and Gromit get temporarily locked into just before the climax was the smallest set they built, naturally – and because the top of it was never in frame, to get it to bob up and down properly when Gromit hotwired the Techno-Trousers to march the bottom off, Nick just pressed on it with his hand XD
H) And the famous train chase sequence? Specifically the part where Gromit has to grab track and lay it out in front of him super fast to keep the train from crashing after Feathers detaches the locomotive and switches him and Wallace onto an unfinished line? Done by attaching the camera to the train so they’d move together, then moving each puppet for a two-second exposure, which created a convincing “motion blur” effect. :D Seriously, that has to be some of the best stop motion ever done just for that alone.
Lovely stuff! It’s always neat to hear from the creators! :) Now I just have to figure out what I’m watching for Thanksgiving week...
2. Work on Christmas Gift Fic: Third of a check – I didn’t actually write anything thanks to the one-two-three punch of a late-running Game Night (card games tonight – I was the champ of Sorry Revenge; Mom won the most rounds of Scrabble Slam; and Dad was the winner of Hit The Deck), a lack of inspiration and motivation thanks to the red curse showing up, and my desire to catch up on OXBox videos (see below), but I did at least make a couple of notes of ideas I had for two of the ones I still need to write. Namely, “maybe Izzy makes a snow fort with the crew from Atlantis: The Lost Empire” for Nattie’s gift fic (as she wanted Milo, Kida, her OC Izzy, and the rest of the crew celebrating Christmas at Mr. Whitmore’s place), and “oh, I have to throw in mistletoe, probably provided by Winston” for Nebby’s gift fic (as she wanted Kift and his ghost kid Winston from her “MediEvil Resurrection II” fanfic sharing Victorian Christmas traditions with Dan and Kiya, and Dan and Kiya sharing Yule and Winter Solistice Ra Celebration traditions in return). Makes me feel like I did SOMETHING! Hopefully I’ll be able to do some actual writing tomorrow, though.
3. Watch something on FreeTube/Invidious: Check – caught up on the latest OXBox list video tonight – “7 Horror Villains That Were Surprisingly Killable in Games!” Andy, Mike, and Jane talking about those horror icons (plus the T-1000 from Terminator 2, which isn’t EXACTLY a horror movie but given I love the T-1000 as a villain I’ll allow it) who, when they showed up in video games, proved to be a lot more killable than in their sequel-riddled canons. Chucky from Child’s Play? Stick him in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and – due to him being just an unlockable skin – he suddenly discovers he’s now just a dude, vulnerable to bullets and hand grenades. (And also disturbingly big, which Andy did not like.) Jason Vorhees from Friday The 13th? Stick him in Multiversus, and he suddenly discovers his hulking size is a detriment when it comes to being hit off the screen by Harley Quinn’s giant mallet. Pyramid Head from Silent Hill? Stick him in Super Bomberman R, and he suddenly discovers that he is not immune to being blasted out of block mazes by big cartoony bombs wielded by cartoony bomberpeople. Yes, when it comes to video games, even the biggest, baddest, most invulnerable monster can suddenly find itself much more prone to perma-death. ...at least until the next multiplayer match. :p (And if you’re still stuck on PYRAMID HEAD being in Super Bomberman R, well, I don’t blame you. Who the fuck signed off on THAT?!)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A, as per usual – nothing to do on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) or Valice Multiverse. Which, considering the red curse brain fog/distraction, is for the best.
Not my most productive night, but given I'm never at my best on my period...yeah, we're not going to make a big deal out of it. Tomorrow, as stated, is a Cleaning & Laundry Saturday, so that's a good portion of my day spoken for right there...and I dunno what I'll be in the mood for once that's all sorted. It's currently a toss-up between some form of video game or watching Jon talk about how bad Fallout 4's 10th anniversary edition is. Do want to do some writing if I can, though -- just gotta be sure the brain meats will cooperate. We shall see -- night all!
Work – It was a long, fairly boring Friday to end the week – I did the GL, I answered one call from someone checking on if their pledge was paid off or not (it was), I looked up a new phone number for a donor who’d overpaid (as the one we had on file was out of service and we didn’t have an e-mail address), and then basically the entire rest of the day was obituaries, merging duplicates, and doing crossword puzzles in the paper to look busy. The latter helped keep the day from dragging TOO much, but I was still very glad to get out of there!
...and then, after a mostly-clear ride down the highway (just a bit of slowdown near the beginning with people trying to get into different lanes and such), I hit the main drag and ended up crawling back to the house because of all the cars. *grumbles* I hate RI traffic, seriously...but I made it home in one piece, and now it is the weekend, yay. Granted, it’s a cleaning weekend where I have my period, but – still.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – hopped back on the bike for the last time this week, pedaling my way through The Wrong Trousers with commentary from Nick Park, Bob Baker (his co-writer), and Steve Box (his co-animator)! As I said I would yesterday. *nods* It was fun to revisit the original short that introduced everyone’s favorite penguin villain, particularly with the commentary – here’s some of the highlights –
A) Apparently, when they sat down to record the commentary, Nick and Bob were working on the script for what would become The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit! And they were actually looking back at The Wrong Trousers because they thought it was the best of the W&G shorts – they specifically praised the slow opening with Gromit having his breakfast and crossing the day off the calendar and getting the mail because it let you get a sense of what life was like in the house before everything kicked off
B) There was also loads of praise for the music – Julian Nott scored this short (along with the others), and the boys loved how he made everything feel very cinematic while keeping in stuff like the brass band in the main theme that made W&G what it was
C) The three were NOT afraid to call Wallace out for being kind of a dick during the short, pointing out that the Techno-Trousers that he gifted to Gromit were really a gift for HIM (because it saved him having to take Gromit out for walkies) and noting that Gromit was VERY quick to forgive him at the end; on the other hand, they did express sympathy for Wallace getting stuck in the Techno-Trousers when Feathers dropped him into them, allowing that it probably hurt (they actually designed it with larger legs in storyboarding, but it got slimmed down when they made the actual models)
D) Feathers McGraw wasn’t originally conceived as a VILLAIN-villain – he was originally just an “annoying nephew” character disrupting the house ecosystem and irritating Gromit. They quickly discovered they couldn’t turn that into a full story, though – it was Peter Lord (one of the founders of Aardman) who ultimately suggested making him a thief, which really kicked things off
E) That scene where Gromit uses the Techno-Trousers to hang upside-down and paint the ceiling of his room? Apparently he was genuinely upside-down in that bit! Don’t know how they pulled it off, but damn
F) The original Feathers McGraw was TINY – about two inches tall! Though he had a bigger model made specifically for all those shots where you see him through the museum window, out on the ledge, so they could properly animate him sweating. (I also noticed that the original Feathers looked much shorter and stumpier than the Vengeance Most Fowl one – but then again, I think ALL the models were a bit shorter and stumpier than they would be in later shorts. Wallace in particular looked kinda short to me when stood next to the Techno-Trousers)
G) The interior of the wardrobe that Wallace and Gromit get temporarily locked into just before the climax was the smallest set they built, naturally – and because the top of it was never in frame, to get it to bob up and down properly when Gromit hotwired the Techno-Trousers to march the bottom off, Nick just pressed on it with his hand XD
H) And the famous train chase sequence? Specifically the part where Gromit has to grab track and lay it out in front of him super fast to keep the train from crashing after Feathers detaches the locomotive and switches him and Wallace onto an unfinished line? Done by attaching the camera to the train so they’d move together, then moving each puppet for a two-second exposure, which created a convincing “motion blur” effect. :D Seriously, that has to be some of the best stop motion ever done just for that alone.
Lovely stuff! It’s always neat to hear from the creators! :) Now I just have to figure out what I’m watching for Thanksgiving week...
2. Work on Christmas Gift Fic: Third of a check – I didn’t actually write anything thanks to the one-two-three punch of a late-running Game Night (card games tonight – I was the champ of Sorry Revenge; Mom won the most rounds of Scrabble Slam; and Dad was the winner of Hit The Deck), a lack of inspiration and motivation thanks to the red curse showing up, and my desire to catch up on OXBox videos (see below), but I did at least make a couple of notes of ideas I had for two of the ones I still need to write. Namely, “maybe Izzy makes a snow fort with the crew from Atlantis: The Lost Empire” for Nattie’s gift fic (as she wanted Milo, Kida, her OC Izzy, and the rest of the crew celebrating Christmas at Mr. Whitmore’s place), and “oh, I have to throw in mistletoe, probably provided by Winston” for Nebby’s gift fic (as she wanted Kift and his ghost kid Winston from her “MediEvil Resurrection II” fanfic sharing Victorian Christmas traditions with Dan and Kiya, and Dan and Kiya sharing Yule and Winter Solistice Ra Celebration traditions in return). Makes me feel like I did SOMETHING! Hopefully I’ll be able to do some actual writing tomorrow, though.
3. Watch something on FreeTube/Invidious: Check – caught up on the latest OXBox list video tonight – “7 Horror Villains That Were Surprisingly Killable in Games!” Andy, Mike, and Jane talking about those horror icons (plus the T-1000 from Terminator 2, which isn’t EXACTLY a horror movie but given I love the T-1000 as a villain I’ll allow it) who, when they showed up in video games, proved to be a lot more killable than in their sequel-riddled canons. Chucky from Child’s Play? Stick him in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and – due to him being just an unlockable skin – he suddenly discovers he’s now just a dude, vulnerable to bullets and hand grenades. (And also disturbingly big, which Andy did not like.) Jason Vorhees from Friday The 13th? Stick him in Multiversus, and he suddenly discovers his hulking size is a detriment when it comes to being hit off the screen by Harley Quinn’s giant mallet. Pyramid Head from Silent Hill? Stick him in Super Bomberman R, and he suddenly discovers that he is not immune to being blasted out of block mazes by big cartoony bombs wielded by cartoony bomberpeople. Yes, when it comes to video games, even the biggest, baddest, most invulnerable monster can suddenly find itself much more prone to perma-death. ...at least until the next multiplayer match. :p (And if you’re still stuck on PYRAMID HEAD being in Super Bomberman R, well, I don’t blame you. Who the fuck signed off on THAT?!)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A, as per usual – nothing to do on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) or Valice Multiverse. Which, considering the red curse brain fog/distraction, is for the best.
Not my most productive night, but given I'm never at my best on my period...yeah, we're not going to make a big deal out of it. Tomorrow, as stated, is a Cleaning & Laundry Saturday, so that's a good portion of my day spoken for right there...and I dunno what I'll be in the mood for once that's all sorted. It's currently a toss-up between some form of video game or watching Jon talk about how bad Fallout 4's 10th anniversary edition is. Do want to do some writing if I can, though -- just gotta be sure the brain meats will cooperate. We shall see -- night all!
