An Idea Is Bulletproof

Well, I was definitely wrong about getting all the plants done, lol. For as pumped as I was, I just could not focus. I'll probably still finish the two smaller pieces tomorrow but not the bigger two.

The lack of focus extended to my reorganization efforts but I've got a lot more done on that front. I have to keep reminding myself of that because I'm currently in the middle of that "dark before dawn" period of rearranging where everything is everywhere and it looks awful, lol. I got the furniture moved, I got the under-bed storage situation situated. The main issue now is getting everything squared so I can put it all up on my closet shelves tomorrow. Found more Goodwill stuff and some to-be-sold stuff I'd put up and forgotten about, which will just have to be put aside for now. Made some slight recalculations re: new storage furniture pieces I want, mostly to do with where I want to put it, which obviously affects how I want things arranged now. Little things like that have set me back more than they should've, due to the aforementioned lack of focus.

I know I can get done tomorrow but I'm no longer so certain about actually managing it. Trying to be kind to myself on that front but it's so frustrating... I'm not giving up, though!! I'm so close, I can feel it. I think I need to just shove aside the "deal with it later" items, whether it's donations or stuff to be sold or things that I don't have the storage pieces for yet, and refuse to think about any of it until I finish figuring out the things I plan to actually live with. I think that's a not insignificant part of what's tripping me up, when I actually can manage to pay attention to what's in front of me. Gonna bank on that, anyway, and see if putting it all out of sight helps.

Final stretch! Just gotta bring it home.

Not quite the day I planned for but I still feel good about getting stuff done this weekend. Gonna get some furniture moved around tomorrow and do the heavy reorganizing. Then probably Sunday will be dedicated to figuring out the smaller details and to collection weeding. I also think I can finish the crochet plants tomorrow aside from finishing touches, which can also be handled on Sunday in between organizing tasks.

Saw 40 Acres tonight! Considering the title and the main cast being a Black and Indigenous blended family headed by former soldiers, I was expecting a more direct political critique. It ended up being pretty subtle, though. Still trying to decide how I feel about its approach, tbh. The racial and community politics are very much there-- there are a couple direct references to the way the government has treated BIPOC people and the family explicitly engages with Black Marxist theory as part of their educational curriculum. But I felt like more could've been explored, especially as regards community and how the parents' approach might've been shaped by their military experience. Then again, the racial makeup of the cast is a conversation in itself, so maybe the creative team wanted to let the setup speak its own piece so the story could focus elsewhere.

The movie is a dystopian thriller set after a fungal plague has wiped out most animal life on Earth. Food is scarce and good farmland is the hottest commodity. The matriarch of the Freemans took her family isolationist during the fallout, surrounding their farm with an electric fence, and has raised her children to survive and to kill. The plot kicks off with word through the Network that other homesteads have been attacked and is driven by the oldest son's growing desire for human contact outside his family.

All the actors put in great performances and the family dynamics feel genuine and lived in. Everyone has their own voice and you really get the sense that this family is a community unto itself. I found the juxtaposition of the horror inherent to the way they've been raised with the sweeter and the simply more mundane moments they share to be highly effective for making the premise believable.

There's a good sense of not only the family's isolation but of their vulnerability throughout the movie. It's there in the characters' behavior, of course, but also in the way their land is set up and what we see of the way they live. There's a visceral sense of the rising threat through the comm chatter we overhear-- probably my favorite little touch in the movie. And the cinematography and sound design really bring it all home. There are some incredible shots and sequences in this movie, especially once we get into the thick of the action. The fight scenes straddle the line between gritty and typical action movie nonsense and they ride that line well.

I didn't find anything terribly special about the story itself. Though it definitely beats its own drum, its beats are familiar to the genre. The story plays out basically how you'd expect it to once everything is set up. This was hardly a disappointment for me, personally, since it let the performances and the action alike shine and left ample space to consider those subtle politics dynamics and to ponder over what little we learn about the backstory of this world.

So, yeah, would recommend!

I always mix up June and July as far as length goes and so I'm always taken by surprise when June ends a day earlier than I expected.

Can you believe this year is half over already? On the other hand, can you believe that there's still a whole half a year to go?

Definitely can't say honestly that I'm where I'd have liked to have been at this point of the year. But I can at least say with some confidence-- maybe more like some optimism-- that I feel like I'm getting close. Better late than never, right?

I overestimated how much yarn I have of a specific color for the plants for my sister-in-law. Oops. Luckily enough, it's for what was already going to be one of the smaller plants. The finished product won't be quite what I originally envisioned but I don't think it should lose too much. It's a generic, viney plant with flowers and so at least it isn't supposed to look like anything in particular.

This does have me worried about how wrong I might be about the two larger pieces I have in mind, though, which are supposed to look like something in particular-- a fern and a spider plant. I guess I'll just go into them assuming they'll be smaller than what I'd originally planned and build them up accordingly. If I do have enough to fill them out, that'll just be a bonus. If push comes to shove, I can get more yarn but I don't want to do that.

At least I know the smallest piece, a set of coasters that looks like a succulent when all folded away, will go exactly as planned.

I won a drawing on Twitter for some random Transformers merch. Which is cool and all but... most of the pool of merch that my prize will be randomly selected from is for Transformers One. I don't want to seem like I'm complaining about winning a drawing I willingly entered but I very much do not want Transformers One merch, lol.

Honestly, I thought when I entered that winners would be able to choose which piece they wanted or at least list preferences. That's my own fault for assuming, obvs. Ah, well. The prize, whatever it is, is on its way to me now. I am, in spite of my reservations, a little excited. Maybe I'll even get the one (1) item I actually wanted! Low odds, granted, but the odds of me winning weren't great either. You never know! I any case, I've been asked by the people behind the merch/drawing to post when I receive my package, so I should probably start thinking now of something tactful to say, lol.

Something is wrong with my sister's car yet again. One of those "could be fine for a month, could stop working tomorrow" sorts of things. So, it'll be a few days at least that she can't risk driving me. Boo. Worse, though, we had plans this weekend. Not much in the way of plans, since I've got things to do, but it involved taking some stuff to Goodwill and some stuff to recycling. More specifically, it involved taking some foodstuff to recycling. Aaand I've already been keeping said foodstuff longer than I meant to, on account of forgetting it when I took my cardboard earlier this week. Here's hoping I can get another ride...

Yes, I know, I should really go about getting a license already. But between the DMV hours being more or less my work hours and the fact that I still wouldn't reliably have a car anyway, it's hard to keep it at the top of my mind as a priority, y'know?

Anyhow, one more work day to go before I really have to worry about it. My brother might be able to take me, not that I think he'll be keen on it since he hates driving anywhere more than ten minutes away for an errand and I need to go closer to twenty minutes away. Dunno when my mom works on Saturday but she might be my last resort. We'll see.

SPEAKING OF WEEKENDS. KINDA. CLOSE ENOUGH. I just realized that the Fourth is on a Friday this year-- three-day weekend coming up fast!! :D I had to pause my rearranging due to lacking the storage solutions I need to get some stuff put away properly but if I can get all that figured out next week-- which I should be able to, since I get paid-- I can use that extra time to wrap everything up. Guys, I'm asking you-- please pick on me about getting stuff done. Stopping in the middle of a project decimates my motivation no matter the reason and despite my best intentions. Don't let me get away with slacking!

There was a Transformers fan stream today that I didn't watch because I was at work, as I am every time they do one of these streams. Like, I get it, Transformers Tuesday-- but can we do just one of these on a weekend, please??

Wasn't too fussed about the "reveals" anyway. We've had a lot of leaks these last few months. I still enjoy hearing the team talk about their process and future plans and it's kinda fun to see who guessed correctly about what would be revealed when but the artificial sense of urgency isn't there, y'know? The only thing I was really anticipating was SS Widowmaker going up for pre-order and I didn't have any expectation of the demand for her making that an issue. (Don't worry, I was right.) I'm not even sure I will bother to pre-order her. I think it's cool that she exists but I don't really care about the Bayverse, never mind dropped concepts from the Bayverse-- and that's exactly what she is. My only interest in getting her is based in wanting to customize her into a different character and it's not really a priority. Especially since I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a variant that's already the color I want.

I'll tell you what I definitely didn't expect was the fallout from something that wasn't even really announced. During the stream, there was a poll regarding one of the current lines. SS, or Studio Series, was originally a line for the movies-- the hint is in the name, see. Specifically, the lineup was live action movie characters. Somewhere along the way, though, it occurred to the folks at Hasbro that Transformers: The Movie the '86 animated feature is, y'know, also a movie. This led to the Studio Series '86 subline, which sought to present the most screen-accurate versions possible of the characters who appear in the movie. And also their corpses, where applicable. Now, this was a divisive move. Live action fans, who had been getting pushed more and more to the side, didn't like that "their" line was being used to push yet more G1, not least because not all live live action characters are yet accounted for. Many fans in general were also just kinda tired of seeing another excuse to pump out more G1 product. I'm in the middle, personally-- so much G1 is exhausting, yes, but also the toys are quite good and I do like those characters. And there have been rumors that the rather broad application of the word "studio" could eventually mean more sublines for other shows, games and even comics, so that could be cool.

Back to that poll. It was asked whether people would be interested in seeing "Studio Series '86" expand to include non-TFTM G1 characters. Specifically '84 (in other words, season one) characters, I believe. And the answer was overwhelmingly yes. And a lot of people have had very intense feelings about that. An important thing to note here is that SS 86 is not the only G1 or G1-heavy line at the moment. G1 has been the driving force behind retail product for years now. Even non-G1 characters being released in the last couple years have had a "but make it G1" design philosophy. My immediate reaction to even the possibility that we're going to get an explicitly G1 line is just, "Seriously?" So, yeah, I absolutely get the people who are sick of G1. Heck, I get the people who have been curating their definitive G1 collections only to be faced with better versions soon being offered so soon after the fact.

On the other hand. Listen. If we get an '84 line, it stands to reason that they'll expand into an '85 line. And that could mean a shot at a better Elita One than the last one we got in Legacy three years ago and new, better molds for her female Autobot team-- who all had the same or basically the same mold the last we saw of them in 2019. Maybe they'll even be good rather than simply kinda decent! I don't have high hopes of this, I grant you. But I don have hopes and so I just can't be totally mad about it.