How to make a green pumpkin 紫砂壶 zishahu (Chinese boccaro teapot/ Yixing clay teapot)
cr: 利休手作
Thanks Cumming, GA
FROM THE CITY THAT BROUGHT YOU
sorry babe, you gotta keep edging until you beat me in cummingopoly
(2023) I created "Hadez" 's characters in 2005 with another person who was a very close friend of mine. We developed the characters a lot since we loved them so much. In 2008 we entered the old Kodansha's Morning International manga competition (do any of you guys remember it?) with a short story based on our characters, ending up among the first 24 finalists of that edition of the contest! It was a great surprise, I was so young and I thought my adventure with these characters was going to end with that contest... but it wasn't!
(above) two pages from 2006 drawn by me and colored by S.T. (below) a page from the MIMC version colored by S.T.
In 2012 I proposed my collaborator to start a webcomic with the characters and so we did, we also printed the first self-published version in 2013 but then an italian publisher (Edizioni Dentiblù) proposed us to publish the comic with them. That version came out in 2015. "Hadez" became a comic trilogy despite the fact it wasn't what I wanted for the series...my dreams were greater lol :P I wanted it to be a series, but it wasn't possible at that time. Not for me, not in Italy. And "Hadez" has never been translated in other languages anyway.
Hadez's version from 2015 published by Edizioni Dentiblù I had a very hard time with this project at the end: the story is not what I wanted it to be and now even the drawings look so stiff to me...I mean, I guess it's normal after all? Also my life was a huge mess at that time. Anyway I'm now alone with these characters, my collaborator is not into comics anymore and we made a deal. I'm so happy I was able to make peace with my favorite characters after difficult times I had in the process of the comic. I'm finally free to love them again and try to do my best with them. I hope I'll be able to give this project and its characters what they deserve.
Honey the Cat Redesign
This blew up on twitter a bit, so now I’m posting it here.
putting “lying to kids is ok” on the table immediately looks bad. but theres nuance. because kids deserve to have as much context and respect as anyone else you live with. but also. telling them that leaving doors open will make ants carry away the entire house is necessary until their brains can quantify the heating&air bill
the ants:
I cannot put into words how much I Fucking Loathe the fact that when you search something on youtube now it will randomly intersperse blocks of "people also watched" and "for you" into the results. That's not what I searched for, youtube. I typed in a search query because I wanted to see search results, not random unrelated garbage you have placed in my way apparently to either inconvenience me or force me to scroll further for actual results. I despise your wretched little games and every time I see it I can only instantly close the tab as I am overcome with the urge to burn something down.
"I despise your wretched little games" perfectly conveys how I feel about the entire algorithm/attention economy
They also refuse to actually show the parameters you searched for. If you sort by “upload date,” the first few videos might be more recent ones by upload date, but anything past that you’ll find a video that was uploaded five years ago, then five months ago, then three years ago, etc, which—NO! That’s NOT WHAT I ASKED FOR!! PUT THEM IN ORDER!!!
Also sometimes the “people also watched” bullcrap will not only be entirely unrelated, it will also be videos with violent, sometimes outright triggering thumbnails. I’ve gotten some AWFUL unrelated video thumbnails just when searching for video game music videos.
Firefox once again cleaning up after the whole corporate internet
I'll admit that this one has cemented itself in my psyche
In this week, Episode 6 of 'My Adventures with Superman' was released, and.....this was a weird one. Out of all the episodes we have of this show so far, this episode has got to have the weirdest premise, and whether that's a good kind of weird or a bad kind of weird, I'll leave up to you, because I can't decide for myself.
So here's my thoughts on Episode 6 (Spoilers incoming) :
- So first off, I guess I'll have to address the ''controversy" from the previous episode. Apparently a bunch of people got mad about Lois's actions in the previous episode, saying that she was unreasonable for getting mad at Clark for hiding his identity from her, and also calling her "toxic" or whatever for jumping of the building to prove that Clark is Superman. If it sounds like I'm being flippant about this, it's because I am. Normally, I try to accept that different people have different opinions, but this is the exception - those people are wrong, and their opinion is wrong. I might have seriously over-estimated just how much people know about Superman through pop-cultural osmosis, because Lois discovering Superman's secret identity and getting mad about Clark keeping secrets from her is such a well-established Superman plot. It's been done in several Superman stories, and it's part of what makes the dynamic of Lois and Clark so interesting.
And as for Lois jumping off a building to prove that Clark was Superman, well that's just another thing that has its roots in other Superman stories. Lois pulling insane stunts to get an interview from Superman or to try and find out his secret identity is practically one of her defining character traits at this point. Hell, even the comics lampshaded it at one point. Here's Clark Kent pulling that exact same stunt in a story where he was powerless and had to get an interview from a new superhero that was running around in Metropolis :
Within the context of the show on it's own, Lois being angry at Clark makes perfect sense. She obviously has issues with people keeping secrets from her, and previous episodes established that her father lied to her about how severe her mother's illness was. Clark trying to brush off his injuries at the end of that episode must have reminded her of that incident, which explains her strong emotional reactions. Also people seemed to have taken Clark's side in this conflict, but consider Lois's perspective here. She's been trying to get ahead in the Daily Planet for months. She tried to get an interview from Superman, who bailed out on said interview despite initiating it in the first place. That's kind of a jerk move, especially since Clark knows how important that interview was for her. It also feels hypocritical of him to lie to Lois when he made such a big deal about lying being a bad thing in the pilot. On the one hand, he keeps telling her to trust him and open up to him, on the other hand he keeps evading her both as Superman and as Clark. No wonder she's angry at him. I saw some people saying it was 'forced drama', when it obviously isn't. 'My Adventures with Superman' is pretty simple compared to other cartoons and superhero TV shows, I'm actually surprised that everything I discussed above is flying over people's heads. In any case, I should stop rambling about the previous episode and just move on to the next episode.
- The episode follows through on the cliffhanger from the previous episode, as Clark and Lois quickly catch on to the fact that Jimmy is missing and they try to retrace his steps to find him. I like that Clark and Lois still care about Jimmy even though they're caught up in their own drama. I also like that Clark is unable to find Jimmy with his own powers, which means that they have to use good old-fashioned detective work to find Jimmy.
- It turns out that Jimmy was captured by a talking Gorilla named Mallah and a sentient Robot named Brain who worked for an organization called Project Cadmus before they had to flea for their lives when Cadmus turned against them. The pair now live in an area of the woods that is shielded from the public. Despite my familiarity with the DC Comics, I've don't know much about these guys. Apparently they have connections to Gorilla Grodd, a Flash supervillain, and have served as enemies to the Teen Titans and the Doom Patrol ? I guess it's nice that this show is adapting such obscure characters. So far, this show has had some very grounded antagonists and characters with Superman himself being the fantastical exception, so it feels bizarre to have characters like Mallah and Brain in this episode.
- On the other hand, it's nice that Jimmy gets to be validated when it comes to some of his conspiracies. Him managing to talk his way out of a bad situation with Mallah and Brain is also a great moment.
- There's a lot going on in this episode between Clark and Lois being menaced by a bunch of scary robots, Clark losing his powers inside the hidden area in the woods, and the trio working out their conflict through all the chaos going on around them, it's a good thing that the writing is solid enough to balance all of these elements.
- Boy, this show really wants to capitalize on how attractive Clark is. He spends half of this episode completely shirtless and those moments are all drawn in ways that emphasizes his muscular build. It's not a complaint, just an observation.
- So it turns out that Jimmy already knew that Clark was Superman this whole time. On the one hand, I really like this moment. I was worried that Jimmy might just fall into the comedic airhead role, so it's nice to see that he is smart enough to figure out Superman's secret identity. He also shows a great deal of emotional maturity when he confesses that he kept that secret from Clark because he was waiting for Clark to tell him on his own terms. On the other hand, I kinda wish that the previous episodes at least hinted that Jimmy was in on the secret, because it almost seems to come out of nowhere.
- The reason that Clark kept his identity a secret from his friends was because he just wanted to be normal, and didn't want his friends to treat him like he was an alien. I really like this. For one, it shows that the writers have a good understanding of Superman's character. There's a deeper layer to the character beyond simply being a decent man. In the comics and other stories, Superman has often struggled with feelings of alienation and loneliness - it's what makes him a fascinating character for me. Fundamentally, Superman stories are about Superman finding acceptance despite being "different", and this show adapts that aspect very well, with Lois and Jimmy letting Clark know that they accept Clark for who he is. This moment also reinforces Clark's optimism and faith in humanity as the episode ends with Clark asserting that he will continue to try to make the world a better place.
- We're given a few more hints as to the identities of the antagonists from the previous episodes, though it's not much. For now it seems that the antagonists will challenge Clark's faith in humanity since they seem to have a "needs of the many" mindset that drives their actions.
So that's episode 6. It's a strange episode as the premise is more than a little outlandish, but there's still a lot to like about it, and the character work continues to be solid.
Jimmy appreciation post because I adored him in this episode (as always).
My Adventures with Superman (2023) | Ep7 | I love going on adventures with you, Clark.
