The Winter Court of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

So I finally got Kris, along with the G1 Pony playset, thanks to a second Target gift card. They did immediate shipping! I wish Amazon was that fast. They never are, unless you have Prime.

Kris looks more accurate than Kelly, just as I thought to begin with. I definitely want all the girls, though, even Julie. I honestly don't like her as much, especially compared to the classy Tiffany that she replaced, but maybe I'll like her more over time. I flip back and forth on her, really; I really liked her in Island Angels, but tonight we watched Stuntwomen Angels and I didn't like her slightly crude comments or her cowardly behavior. Although at the same time, I can't blame her for being afraid! I would be terrified to do frightening stunts! But I didn't like her cheating when they drew straws and causing Kelly to have to do the dangerous stunt first.

I could be wrong, but I think Julie is better-liked in the fandom than Tiffany. Maybe because Julie is different from the norm and they like that. But Tiffany is different too, in other ways. Like, she has an interest in the occult and believes in ghosts. I really like that and it would have been fun to have explored that more. I love the Halloween-ish episode with her! It doesn't hurt that she was in the first episode I saw, too, the one with Simon Oakland: Angel's Child, so in some ways I was used to her right off the bat. Some people have said that Tiffany is useless, but she doesn't seem so to me. Of course, I always love things everyone else hates, and in some ways, I think my ideal line-up would have been the season 4 line-up but with Sabrina staying on too, or at least making guest appearances like Jill. I love Tiffany!

The down-side of season 4 is that it's book-ended by two two-part episodes, neither of which particularly appeal to me. It opens with a crossover with The Love Boat, and while I like the main characters of that series, I don't care for the series since it seems like there's often insinuations of the guests getting it on with each other. (But I could be wrong on that happening a lot, since I haven't watched many Love Boats. A mushy series about guests often falling in love, or in infatuation, doesn't appeal much to me. I'd rather see more about the main cast.) Then season 4 ends with an irritating plotline of Kelly and Kris both falling for the same guy and that causing a rift between them. I hate that type of storyline. Although I am morbidly curious to see how bad the rift gets, as I always hope some friends won't let it ruin things completely. Naturally, we'll see all episodes eventually.

Halloween went well, costume-wise, although I didn't get to cosplay in local stores like I like to do. I still wanted to do it badly enough that I did it the following Monday. No one batted an eye. I love how chill this area is. I also love the dinner at the neighborhood Trunk or Treat: chilis and soups. They had a chicken chowder thing and even better, a potato soup! And tons of shredded cheese. So much love. A guy also gave us giant Snickers bars, which was epic. I adore Snickers!

Best Buy sent me a mystery certificate that I had to go in to find out the amount of. It could be anywhere from $5 to $5,000, with several other levels in between. Of course, I knew it was likely it was $5, but I wanted to try anyway, and even $5 would make me happy. Dad was very iffy about going, but finally agreed we could. We also needed to run a couple of errands, so it wasn't just a shopping trip for me to do frivolous, fun things. (And anyway, if it had been a big amount, I probably would have tried to find something to share with the family instead of just something for me. Although I badly want an Apple tablet, especially since I don't think they keep mysteriously gobbling space like Androids seem to....)

It was indeed the $5, and though my original plan was to get screen protectors for the big tablets if that happened, I was unable to do that. Oh dear. I know Best Buy had them back in April. But they have other neat stuff, even toys these days. I've been wanting a Wobbuffet plush that's bigger than the one Walmart has, and Best Buy had one. It's normally $20, but was on sale for $15, and then my certificate meant I only paid $10! I saw other things that looked good too, but my heart was set on Wobbuffet as soon as I saw him and the price. So soft....

I also had another coupon for Build-a-Bear and wanted to see if I could still get Peanut. She's no longer on the website and they're clearancing her out in stores, so I was worried they might not still have her. They actually had just one left! She was also part of a deal on clearance plushies for 2 for $25. Since she's $25 by herself, and would be such if I didn't do the sale, I thought it would be ridiculous not to do it. Why get one plushie for $25 when I could get two for the same price? They had one Halloween cat in the Clearance bin too, and since I'd wanted their pretty, glisteny cat, that was perfect. I also added a sound to one of these plushies for the first time, both to get the purchase up to what I needed to apply the coupon and because it was kitty sounds and it was too adorable to pass up.

I peeked in The Disney Store and they were still running plushie sales, as usual. I think I may ask for Lady for Christmas, to have something to ask for since I'm always puzzling over it. They also had a lot of Wreck-It Ralph figures and plushies because of the sequel coming out next week. I would enjoy having some of those too, but I don't know if I'd ask for any of those because Dad would probably make fun of the movie title and the character designs. I saw the trailer for the sequel as part of my work, of all things, and it looked so fun that I decided I should really see the first one. I'd always thought it looked like something I'd love. I was right, surprisingly, even though there was some bathroom humor I hated. Normally that will turn me off of something then and there. But I was so enchanted by the characters and the friendship and the "bad guy" thinking he was bad even as he was doing good things that I just fell in love with it when I bought it last week. I watched it three times, twice in a 12-hour period. LOL. I think the last time I did that with a film was the third Equestria Girls film. I also feel like it's time for another watch.

I also dropped in at Target with a third Target gift card (I've really been getting some amazing work lately) and remembered this time to get The Monkees' Christmas album. I'm going to listen to that today. I'm thrilled they finally made one, and that they got Davy on there in the form of archive recordings! It wouldn't be right without him. I also got another Pony. They still don't have the third wave yet, but now I have all but one of the second wave and three of the first wave. I hope I'll still be able to get the rest of the first wave, but I suppose I'll be able to; they keep selling out and restocking. People love having G1 Ponies back!

Then it was to Joann's to find material for David's hair. I really haven't wanted to use the same material as Duke's, since David's hair is lighter and that material is such a pain. I couldn't find anything in the exact shade, only lighter or darker. I chose lighter, because the material was amazingly soft. I also got a plushie base for Serenity and discovered that there is no tan or auburn fleece at Joann's. Walmart didn't have any either. I had to settle for something more orangey than planned on, as it was the closest to the right color. I also talked to an employee briefly about My Little Pony (G4), because of my Pony hat. We both have Twilight and Fluttershy as favorite Ponies, and she likes Applejack a lot too. I also like her, although I usually like Rarity as third favorite main Pony. (Overall, my most favorites are Twilight and Sunset, but Sunset I think of more as a human than a Pony, since she chooses to live as a human.)

I've mostly finished the Yami Bakura in Thief King form plush, by the way. I've detailed some of the process at dA, so I don't think I'll do it here too. http://meromeroyui.deviantart.com

During the trip, we heard a radio ad about Papa Murphy's Pizza having XL pizza for $6 on Fridays, so I badly wanted to check it out. Dad agreed and we brought one home. It's more seasoned than a Little Caesar's, but the crust is very thin and I prefer thick crust. Seems like the other Papa Murphy's I had featured thicker crusts. Ah well, I love the pizza regardless, though! Yuum.

I've been in a lingering Halloween mood since the beginning of the month, but Christmas music is finally go on the radio and I'm getting into the Christmas spirit from that and from seeing the lovely Christmas decorations in stores today. There's also a beautiful new store in the mall that has mostly religious paintings! I can hardly wait to take Mom there; she'll be in love with it.

I finished my WWW fic and started on the next YGO one. I needed to further my Big Five storyline, so this one features Lector back in his body and Dr. Portman trying to manipulate him into helping her torment Seto for her latest experiment. But Lector, torn after getting fed-up with revenge plots and having tried to help Mokuba, isn't sure what he wants to do. He's the only one of the Big Five that I felt could be redeemed, so I wanted to try it. I definitely find it intriguing how upset he is about thinking Seto used Mokuba and betrayed Gozaburo. Portman points out that he's hypocritical, since he also betrayed Gozaburo. This is juxtaposed with Yami Bakura wanting to celebrate Halloween and turn the front lawn into a scare fest. LOL. It's my attempt to write something similar to the old mysteries, as I mused about wanting to try doing. The mysteries were quite a mix of humor and dark situations, which this definitely is. I didn't stop to realize, though, that maybe newer readers wouldn't appreciate the humorous tones.... I'm also not sure Dr. Portman is appreciated, since YGO leans more towards fantasy than sci-fi. There are sci-fi elements too, though, especially in the virtual reality arc, so it doesn't seem so out of place to me to have a villain who's more about sci-fi than fantasy.

I had a pretty awesomely weird dream the other day that would be really fun to make into a fic sometime. It was a Wild Wild West dream and had Jim and Arte investigating this saloon/casino place. They found that Lucrece Posey was running it, and that Snakes was serving as her right-hand man. It seemed to be an AU where Snakes and not Ascot Sam was the sole male survivor of the gang, and weirder, where he was the only one who had remained loyal to Miss Posey. When I woke up, I really wanted to do something with it, but AU usually feels so cheap to me and I wanted to figure out if I could make it work in my established canon-compliant timeline. I came up with the thought of a mad scientist, maybe Dr. Faustina, experimenting with brainwashing and amnesia drugs and managing to alter Posey and Snakes' memories so they think something different happened than what did. Jim and Arte stumble into this mess and are utterly baffled. Maybe they are also part of the experiment and Dr. Faustina has made them forget all about time-traveling to the future and Snakes turning over a new leaf, etc., and they only remember their initial encounter with the gang and are stunned by Snakes being alive, not to mention loyal to Miss Posey. Eventually they do remember and have to try to get Posey and Snakes to remember.

I had a lovely birthday. At first we weren't sure if we'd even be able to go out because the weather was supposed to be wonky, but it ended up being fine for most of the time we were out and it was a wonderful outing. I ended up being able to get some of the retro My Little Ponies from Target after all. I asked for a couple, and I received those, and I also bought a couple more. I also got the Kelly figure. Kris, of course, is not out yet. But she is on the website, and I'm seriously considering ordering her there since it could be months before stores get her.

Build-a-Bear once again didn't send a birthday coupon, and this year I'm wondering if they've stopped the birthday coupons in favor of that Count Your Candles thing, which isn't nearly as good since it's only for one specific plush and only benefits the kids. There are lots of adult shoppers too, and they should still be considered. I don't know if I want to call and ask about the coupon this year or not. Last year I got someone who thought I was a moron, sigh. She didn't even seem to know about the birthday coupons. It seemed like a problem for everyone born in October that they hadn't got their coupon and eventually they were sent out in the latter part of the month, and the coupons were good through November to make up for the mess.

Anyway, I didn't miss the coupon too much this year. I do kind of hope I can get another Lalaloopsy before she's gone, but meanwhile I found something actually exciting at The Disney Store. They haven't had a very interesting plushie section for years; it's so streamlined from what it used to be. But they had Oliver and Dodger as part of a 30th anniversary celebration of Oliver and Company, and they were running a plushie sale that made each of them $12. I had to get them both. I'm wondering now if I should have also got Lady, or at least seen whether she was part of the sale too. I was so excited about Dodger and then about Oliver too that I wasn't thinking at the time, but I only have a puppy Lady plush. I've always wanted an adult Lady too. Eh, maybe I'll get to go back soon and check. Anyway, they seem to run plushie sales a lot, interestingly. Most times I've gone, it seems like they're having one.

I also got this awesome Nancy Drew computer game with a haunted mansion and a ghost. It looks like maybe there really is something supernatural going on in addition to the probable fraud. I hope so. It's a really fun game so far. I love puzzle games, especially with mansions and ghosts! There's a cemetery on the grounds too. So creepy! And it's giving me some possible ideas for my YGO Bad End Night fic.

There were other fun things too: a lovely card and a fun blurb with Bakura and Yami Bakura from Crystal, Ladyamberjo sent the movie Coco, and other things from my parents included a card, the My Little Pony movie (the one from last year, not the 1980s one), the 90 Minutes in Heaven movie, a gorgeous autumn leaf necklace, and Roma Downey's Box Of Butterflies book (totally a surprise there, but a thrilling one!). An aunt sent a card plus a couple of DVDs and a couple of books, all romance, which isn't a surprise. I think she's trying to get me interested in romance. Everything looks interesting, though, and one of the DVDs is four Christmas movies, and there can never be too many Christmas movies. I actually saw one of them last year when I was with my friend and she had the Hallmark Channel on in the background. It was a very cheesy movie but kind of cute and sweet, and I actually had kind of wanted it, so I'm excited about that. One of the books also sounds like it has some friendship stuff going on in addition to the romance plot, so I'm anxious to see how that goes.

I really felt like a kid again this year. It was amusing, being surrounded by Ponies and Disney plushies, but it felt so good. For a little while it was kind of like I was ten again, when I was first longing for more Oliver and Company plushies.

I also figured out my Amazon order. It looks like the OS for the cheapest Fire tablet is an older one, based on Android's Lollipop. I'm not sure if Duel Links would even run on an OS that old, at least, not for very long. I think I'll wait on a tablet and maybe I can get a good deal on a more recent one over Black Friday weekend next month. For my order, I'm getting Charlie's Angels, It's a Miracle, and the Secret Agent set. Scrolling through my list of stuff, I suddenly felt like I really wanted to get that. We never did get to see all the episodes because Netflix lost one or two of the discs, and the ones we did see were mostly good. I remember there being very few duds in that series, and I was ecstatic when the boxset came out. I doubted I could ever get it, but I added it to my list anyway. Squee, the set even has all of both series, the thirty-minute one and the hour-long one! So excited to see those again, and to see the ones we missed. (And LOL, the actress who played Miss Posey is in the first episode of the thirty-minute series.)

I also located some good shirts on eBay and bid on one that looks about perfect. With any luck, maybe I can pull off a halfway decent Halloween costume after all.

We had some lovely cloudy days last week that made things feel very much like fall, and the shortening days in general are making it feel that way too. It's so exhilarating. There was already a Spirit Halloween store open a week and a half ago when I finally got to use my Build-a-Bear coupon before it expired. (I got Eevee, as the Ponies weren't available, oddly, and for once the coupon didn't exclude Pokemon, so I decided I should take full advantage of that since I wanted Eevee too.) I'm guessing more merchandise will come in as the weeks go on, but it was fun going in and looking around at what they currently had. And after Labor Day, most stores will start getting their Halloween sections going! I'm excited to see what they'll have. Smith's was getting ready for their section last week. They had tons of candy boxes ready to unpack on the seasonal aisle. And Dollar Tree already has Halloween cards and some decorations. I bet this week they'll have the full section up.

On the downside, you wouldn't think it would be impossible to find a plain blue button shirt, but it is. The only button shirts aside from dress shirts seem to be plaid, and the dress shirt I'd staked out at Walmart to buy in a pinch if all else failed is also gone. WTH. I find it ridiculously maddening that I started planning my Halloween costume in February and I still can't find something so simple to make it work! I'll look a little more, but by this point I'm tempted to use a light blue denim coat I have instead. Unless that has gone AWOL too.

As usual, I'm not sure what to ask for for my birthday. Naturally I would like things, but since I can't come up with anything it's often tempting not to ask for anything. But I know it means a lot to Mom to have something for me, so somehow I'll need to think of something. What I'd like most is more Kotobukiya YGO figures, but of course that's out of the question. So expensive. Maybe I should just go the practical route and ask for a small bookcase. I keep dawdling on getting one because I want one on wheels. But we can't find those anywhere anymore. I'm almost tempted to get a regular bookcase, then switch it with the one on wheels in the living room and bring the wheeled one into my room. But I'm not sure the one on wheels has enough space to fit everything I need to have go in it.

Of course, my go-to thing to ask for is mysteries by my favorite local author. He's probably written at least one more by now. But I have so many books stacked around now that need to be read that asking for more seems laughably ridiculous. Occasionally one goes out of print faster than others, though, so I do like to keep on top of the releases even if it takes me a while to get to all of them.

Another thought would be asking for more of the retro G1 My Little Ponies by The Bridge Direct. I definitely want more; I only have one, and they've done three waves by now! The Target near us always seems to be out of them, though. And it's not really that near to us; it takes about twenty minutes to get there, and Dad is obsessive about gas, so I wouldn't be surprised if we wouldn't even be in that area until my birthday. Heh. So that would be out. I wish Walmart would carry those Ponies too.

Target is also carrying some neat Mego-type figures of classic TV characters. They had one of Kelly Garrett from Charlie's Angels, but I wasn't sure how good the likeness was. I'd like one of Sabrina most, but I'm not sure they made her. They may have just done one character for each series, although I saw several Star Trek varieties. But that's Star Trek. A cheesy, cute little show like Charlie's Angels might not get dolls of everyone. I'll try to find out a little more about the Kelly figure, since she's my second favorite Angel, but I think if I have to question the likeness, it's probably not a very good one. But on the other hand, it could just be that it's been way too long since I've watched Charlie's Angels.

I have a chance to get some gift cards on a project I'm doing for work. I'm debating if I should use them to get another tablet, if there's enough of them. I'm thinking I really need a second recently-made tablet, because the old tablet is too old to handle much of the work I was doing on it and the gaming tablet has little space and I kind of feel protective of it like it's more fragile, especially since it's not one of the sturdier brands like Samsung. (It's a DigiLand.) I don't like installing too many things on it or doing too much on it other than Duel Links, but I've had to do a lot of my work on it lately. I'm thinking maybe I should get an Amazon Fire tablet, which I had considered in the first place. Only maybe I should try for the 16 GB model instead of the 8 GB model. I guess it depends on how many gift cards I end up with at the end of the project.

I've finished tinkering with two YGO oneshots I've had around for weeks, waiting for the right time to post them. I think it's the right time for at least one of them. And I'm tempted to try writing a Halloween mystery and try very hard to make it like the old mysteries, but I'm not fully sure I can. I mean, how are smugglers or thieves that daunting and dangerous after the gang has faced off against the personification of the darkness in human hearts? I may have to make it a supernatural mystery, but try to keep as much of the lightheartedness of the old mysteries as possible. Easier said than done! The old mysteries were humorous and often OOC for some characters. I could keep some humor, but the OOC stuff would have to go, of course, and probably also a lot of the hurt/comfort. I try to be more sparing and at least slightly more realistic with my hurt/comfort now, as compared to the old stories. (I.E., there would not be any strangeness like characters getting hanged without many serious aftereffects.) I would likely still have knockouts without many serious aftereffects, though, because that's one hurt/comfort thing I'm not willing to give up or write completely realistically.

In any case, I'm kind of worried that I'll start a mystery and then stall on it, especially if there aren't any serious stakes. I might end up feeling that I'm stumped and that it doesn't matter that much if I am, if the story doesn't really have overall importance to the timeline. And it also wouldn't matter if I got stumped if the person I'd be trying to please by writing it wouldn't like it anyway since it would be set in the new timeline. I've considered off and on trying to write a mystery just for myself, as I should, but I honestly do like to give readers as much of what they want as I can, and I thought of the Halloween mystery fic idea while trying to think of something that would make that person happy. But as long as it's part of the current timeline, she probably won't be, so I probably shouldn't even bother for that reason. I honestly thought the past two twenty-chapter adventures kept the basic feel of the old timeline, even though it's true that they weren't as funny. But she didn't think so, and I doubt I can really replicate the old stuff very well. I'm not the same person who wrote those old stories and I have some different story interests now. I don't want to revisit a timeline I don't care to write in anymore, and I don't know how to make the current timeline more like the old one. I'm really trying my best. I've even got this Seto to where he's loosened up enough to consider Yugi-tachi his friends now, so that will be somewhat similar to the old timeline. He had some important development in the shorter adventure I finished writing on Friday.

I don't know what to do. Maybe just start writing some stuff for a Halloween mystery and see if I like it enough to keep going, or if I think I'll just stall on it instead. I did have an amusing idea of Yami Bakura being amused by Halloween decorations and wanting to fix up the yard to be creepy, although he would probably say that none of the decorations seemed scary enough to him. LOL.