Stephy Plays Animal Crossing: New Horizons

 Day Seven

Last time on Hades

Let's see... Last time I was working my way towards getting the Nook's shop built. Let's see how I do on that this time.

First, I caught a bug.

And then a fish.

And another.

And another.

Saharah sells mystery rugs and flooring. You don't know what you're going to get. You just give her money and she gives you some random thing. I never get anything good. I always get some ugly ass rug that I sell to Nook's.

Well, shit. I will be keeping this one. I enjoy this one. Also, that polka-dotted thing is an "inflatable couch" that I lay down on. So I sold the "bed" (it was a cot for camping) I had and kept that thing cause it's cute.

Another fish.

Oh, Timmy, don't look so surprised. 

Found a spot for the shop! Which should be there next time I play! Wooo! One step closer to the Able Sisters! I hope. I really need some new clothes. 

And that's all for now. See y'all next Wednesday 👋🏻

Stephy Rambles About Tales From Mos Eisley Cantina Book

Tales From Mos Eisley Cantina

Just a heads up - I took notes on my phone while I read this book, then just put my notes on here with some edits. My phone kept autocorrecting "droid" to "druid". So, if I missed fixing one, let me know. Also, some little summaries are more detailed than others. Deal with it. I had more thoughts for some stories than other ones.

"We Don't Do Weddings: The Bands Tale" by Kathy Tyers

Can we just take a moment for the fact that the band's name is Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes and they play jizz music? Let my pre-teen sense of humor giggle about that for a minute….

Okay. Done with that.

Story is about the band that plays in the Cantina. Originally they had a contract with Jabba, then Figrin agrees to play Lady Valarian's wedding. She is Jabba's chief rival on Tatooine. So, that should end horribly.

Spoiler - it ended horribly. The bride and groom got into a fight. The band barely escaped, and then they got stuck playing at the Cantina trying to make enough money to leave Tatooine.

"A Hunter's Fate: Greedo's Tale" by Tom Veitch and Martha Veitch

Greedo's family and some others escaped Rodia after some shit went down. They end up on some nice peaceful jungle planet and live fine. For, like, 12 years. And then the Rodians they left Rodia because of found them. So… off to Nar Shaddaa. Which, for those unfamiliar with the planets of Star Wars that weren't obviously shown in the movies, Nar Shaddaa is like if Mos Eisley Cantina was an entire planet. Lots of scum and villainy.

Greedo meets some bounty hunters on Nar Shaddaa. One of which is described as "obviously an intelligent species of bird – or descended from birds." So that dude is now Big Bird in my head. Greedo travels with these bounty hunters to Tatooine. Where we all know what happened there.

I almost feel sorry for Greedo. He was just a kid who wanted to be a bounty hunter and got betrayed in the end.

"Hammertong: The Tale of the "Tonnika Sisters"" by Timothy Zahn

I was never a huge fan of this story. Not sure why or if there is a reason. But every time I read this book it is a chore to get through this story.

It's not a bad story. Honestly it's pretty good. Two women are pretending to be the Tonnika Sisters so they can hire a smuggler to get themselves and a piece of equipment they stole from the Empire off Tatooine. *whispers* they stole a bit of the Death Star.

I think my issue was that I was expecting a story about the actual Tonnika sisters, who are thieves. I wanted some Catwoman-level thievery, but that wasn't what I got. But this one is still good.

"Play It Again, Figrin D'an: The Tale of Muftak and Kabe" by A.C. Crispin

Kabe is a baby and just wants her juri juice! Wait. What is juri juice? *looks it up* Booze. It's booze.

What race is Muftak? They showed up in an episode or so of The Clone Wars and I loved them. It's fine. Muftak doesn't know what he is either. Just a big ol' space polar bear…

He's a Talz!

Anyway! Kabe is a thief, Muftak is… well… he's not a thief. He mostly just sells information to people and keeps Kabe out of trouble. And they decide to rob Jabba's town house. Which… probably not a great idea… But, Muftak wants off Tatooine and they need the credits.

"The Sand Tender: The Hammerhead's Tale" by Dave Wolverton

Momaw Nadon is a spy for the Rebellion. And because of an Imperial named Alima, has been exiled from his home planet.

Momaw has a little garden of plants. One of which is a talking tree. That tree needs to shut the fuck up and let Nadon kill that Imperial. Asshole deserves Death.

"Be Still My Heart: The Bartender's Tale" by David Bischoff

This droid includes aspects of both R2 and protocols droids, and their specialty includes "meal preparation, catalytic fuel conversion, enzymatic composition breakdown, chemical diagnostic programming, and bacterial composting acceleration." They are also "an excellent blender, toaster over, and bang-corn air popper. And can whip up an extraordinary meal from everyday garbage." Where I can I find me one of those?

This story does explain Wuher (the bartender)'s hatred for droids. Basically, he was treated like shit and droids are the only things he can treat like shit. Chalmun (the wookie that owns the cantina) doesn't want druids in the cantina because they don't drink so are wasting space.

Dr. Evazan is just dropping his "wanted on 12 systems" shit just randomly in conversations…

Wuher is a little obsessed with Greedo's scent. For reasons *shifty eyes* not gonna spoil that bit.

"Nightlily: The Lovers' Tale" by Barbara Hambly

trigger warning

a whole bunch of sexism and use of a date rape drug.

Feltipern Trevagg is a gotal. Which, kind of looks like a goat man… with a gorilla face. For reference. Anywho! Gotals can feel emotions through those horns of theirs. And somehow, Felt here feels Obi Wan (well, a jedi) in Mos Eisley. And, as a hunter, he's gonna find Ol' Ben and let the Empire know. For the dolla dolla billz.

A lady - M'iiyoom Onith (Star Wars names, man) - needs Felt's help with a tax issue. Yeah. Felt is a tax man. As in, he raises and comes up with taxes then giggles when people can't pay. Anyway, M'iiyoom shows up and Felt falls in love. Oh. It's a kissing story!

*whispers* It wasn't a kissing story and Felt got what he deserved.

I will leave you with an old Ithorian proverb - N'ygyng mth'une vned 'isobec' k'chuv 'ysobek' loosely translated means "the word for 'love' in one language is the word for 'dinner' in others

"Empire Blues: The Devaronian's Tale" by Daniel Keys Moran

This fella is a war criminal sort of. Going by Labria which I might or might not have misread as Labia more than once… He is also known as Butcher of Montellian Serat. And he's a music nerd.

Dude pretty much manipulates everything to get Figrin D'an to play at the Cantina. He goes to Lady Val and convinces her to get them to play her wedding. He told Jabba that they were playing the wedding so Jabba would retaliate. He had Wuher go to the wedding and offer the band a job playing at the Cantina.

End note: I am pretty sure there is a story out there where Boba Fett goes after this guy and has to sit in the mud in his underwear. I swear I remember reading that story and it wasn't fan-fiction.

"Swap Meet: The Jawa's Tale" by Kevin J. Anderson

Het Nkik is a Jawa that has crazy ideas. Crazy! He thinks Jawas are weak because they choose to be. Which… little fella might be right. But the other Jawas think he is bantha-shit crazy.

The story opens with Het Nkik and his fellow Jawas arriving at a yearly swap Meet among all the jawas of Tatooine.

Oh! Apparently Het here fixed up the assassin/messenger Droid that shows up in the Figrin D'an story. Neat.

Anyway, one of the sandcrawlers doesn't make it to the swap Meet. Three guess what happened to them… other jawas think it might have been Tusken Raiders, as they attacked another group of Jawas. So little Het buys himself a blaster…

Het's group of Jawas find the missing Sandcrawler. Where they find the dead jawas and Obi-Wan. Who gives a bit of a motivational speech. Which is probably going to end badly, but keep up those pep talks Obi-Wan. One might work out for you.

"Trade Wins: The Ranat's Tale" by Rebecca Moesta

This one is almost a sort of companion piece to the previous story. The Ranant (who's name is either never mentioned or I forgot to take note of...) that traded with Het Nkik is the focus of this story. And it is basically just a retelling of the meeting from their point of view.

Rude little ranant stole from poor Het Nkik.

"When the Desert Wind Turns: The Stormtrooper's Tale" by Doug Beason

This is about Davin Felth - He’s the “Look sir, droids!” stormtrooper.

The story opens with Davin arriving for training on Carida. Which is apparently hell. At one point he gets sent for AT-AT training. Which he is super excited about. I understand. I wanna drive one of those things. Davin is a smart boy who figures out that there is a chance that fighters could trip up an AT-AT. As a reward for discovering this slight flaw, he gets shipped off to Tatooine. As a stormtrooper, not an AT-AT operator.

Davin began having some doubts as his troop of Stormtroopers killed the group of jawas that sold Artoo and Threepio to Luke and Owen. And then Owen and Beru. Davin is not enjoying his job at this point.

In the end Davin realizes that the Empire is evil and he will become a spy for the Rebellion. Good on him. I mean, he’ll probably die at some point, but good on him.

"Soup’s On: The Pipe Smoker’s Tale" by Jennifer Roberson

Dannik Jerriko is an Anzat, which are basically space vampires? I dunno. He's also an assassin.

This whole story sort of confused me. Dude keeps talking about drinking people's soup. Which I don't think was explained… I should probably look that up but seriously I am bored of reading "soup, such soup" and the like. Story was kind of boring honestly. I complained about the Tonnika sisters' story, but I forgot about this one. That one was a delight. This one is a chore to get through...

"At the Crossroads: The Spacer's Tale" by Jerry Oltion

This is about BoShek, he's the dude Obi-Wan talks to before talking to Chewbacca.

Also seems like the dude has some talent in the Force. Obi Wan offers to talk about that when he gets back to Tatooine. Hope that dude isn't still waiting…

"Doctor Death: The Tale of Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba" by Kenneth C. Flint

Remember the guy that was wanted in 12 systems and his buddy that lost an arm cause Obi-Wan has a thing for slicing off people's limbs? Yeah. That's these guys. This takes place after the events in A New Hope.

Dr. E needs a "Young, strong, healthy, perfectly formed" human man. Little creepy, but okay.

It's a mind-swapping story, y'all… And it does not end well for anyone, really

"Drawing the Maps of Peace: The Moisture Farmer's Tale" by M. Shayne Bell

Ariq Joanson is a moisture farmer, the furthest farm out. And he gets the idea to make peace with the Jawa and the Sand People. Spoiler - lots of people do not like his idea During a wedding, adolescent Sand People show up, a dude gets killed and his new wife gets taken. So Ariq is off to save her. Then,. Imperial stormtroopers show up and ruin it all. Dude decides he's going to join the Rebellion cause the Empire is a bunch of dicks.

"One Last Night In the Mos Eisley Cantina: The Tale of the Wolfman and the Lamproid" by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens

Okay. This one is more amusing to me if I just leave the notes I took instead of making them into some sort of cohesive thing. Enjoy!

Lak Sivrak and Dice Ibegon

What the hell? We're at the Battle of Endor?

Is this Wolfman time traveling? Having visions? What?! I am confused…

What is a Florn lamproid? I forget… *looks it up* AAAAHHHHHHHHHH! IT'S A MONSTER! AND ACCORDING TO THIS STORY THAT THING IS GONNA FUCK A WOLFMAN! AAAAHHHH!

DON'T HISS SEDUCTIVELY! I KNOW WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE!

THEY'RE KISSING!

"her ringed teeth that were never again to know the bliss of shredded flesh." Ah. Such bliss.

Oh. That was actually a really nice love story…

End thoughts?

Greedo's smell is mentioned constantly. So weird. It is brought up every time Greedo shows up in a story, I think.

Almost all of the stories take place before and during A New Hope.  All but the Dr. E and Ponda one go through what is shown in the movie. And how others react.

So many rebel agents were just hanging out on Tatooine. I think there were about seven or eight rebel agents just there. And a few characters decided to join the Rebellion by the end of their story.

I always enjoyed these books. Tales From Jabba's Palace (which I reviewed here), Tales From Mos Eisley Cantina, Tales of the Bounty Hunters. All were great and always fun reads. I highly recommend this to Star Wars fans. Just remember, this isn't canon. And Florn lamproids are monsters... but monsters that deserve love.

That's all for this week. See y'all next Wednesday 👋🏻

Stephy Rambles About Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire series

 

I was going to use a stock photo for a job interview because I thought that would be funny. But I couldn't find one I liked, so y'all get a shitty picture of my TV instead. 

Hey guys! Guess what I just finished watching!

That's right. Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire series on AMC. And oh my gods was it good.

I'm pretty sure Ryan (go follow him on Twitter) is still shocked that I watched something in a timely manner instead of waiting six months.

Let me start off by saying that while I have many issues with both the Interview with the Vampire and Queen of the Damned movies, I do enjoy both of them. And I have felt for years that the Vampire Chronicles would make for a better TV show than a movie. There are too many things in those books for a movie. 

Now, for the show.

Oh. Spoilers ahead for both the show and the book. Maybe the movie as well. 

Also:

Warnings:

This show contains blood, death, suicide, self-harm, nudity, murder, abusive relationships, violence, sexual situations, gore, racism, and probably a few things I forgot.

I was excited for the show, but not overly excited. Especially when I heard about some changes they were making. I wasn't sure if it was going to work out or not. But, my fears were unfounded because the changes they made worked out great in my opinion.

For those unaware, the whole basis of Interview with the Vampire is that Louis de Pointe du Lac is a vampire and he meets Daniel Molloy, a reporter, and tells his life story. 

The show takes place after that. Louis had given his first interview and angrily left Daniel when he asked to be turned into a vampire. And then, Louis wants a re-do. So Daniel meets Louis again, and Louis tells his story. Again.

Louis's story starts in 1910. He is a gay, creole man living in New Orleans. He catches the attention of a white French man, Lestat de Lioncourt. Spoiler, Lestat is a vampire.

Louis and Lestat have a little love affair before Louis begins to distance himself. But then, Louis's brother Paul dies. Louis goes to church to confess his sins, but Lestat is like, "Hey, how about we not do that. Instead, I will turn you into a vampire." And Louis is like "'Kay."

Okay. There was a lot more blood during that, but that is basically what happens. 

The two vampires continue with their (frankly unhealthy) relationship for a while. At one point, bringing in Claudia, a teenage girl that Louis treated like a daughter. 

That's all I'm going to say about the plot. Watch the show. Seriously. It was good. So fucking good.

As I said before, they changed quite a bit for the show. One being Louis is a black man. Which works considering other changes they made. Didn't take anything away from the story. Gave a bit more to it, if you ask me. 

Claudia is older than she was in the book, which is good. Claudia in the book was five. In the show, she is 14. That change works very well. And Claudia got more depth and more story focused on just herself instead of who she is in relation to Louis and Lestat.

They also changed the time period of the show. In the book, the start of Louis's story was in 1791. In the show, it began in 1910. I liked this change as well. 

One big omission from the book the show made was Lestat's father. He wasn't in the movie, either. But he was in the book. And it is an omission I never had an issue with. The old man didn't bring a lot to the story.

Each episode has scenes that take place in the present day of Daniel and Louis talking. Which were really interesting. 

All in all, I liked the changes they made. They worked. Didn't pull anything away from the original story. I don't mind changes in adaptations, really. Makes it more interesting and exciting to watch sometimes. As long as the changes are good and don't change the overall original story. Like, if they changed Louis's race for the show, but kept the same time period and have him still be a plantation owner? No. Bad change. But, they changed his race, changed the time period, and his occupation and it all worked out pretty well in my opinion. 

And there were quite a few little bits for the fans of the Vampire Chronicles to catch and go "ooooooo!" Which were super fun. Which, I need to read those books again. 

The show was great all around. 

The costumes looked authentic enough. Not 100% sure how authentic they actually were. Need to work on my fashion history skills. 

The humor was fucking fantastic. I did not expect to laugh during this show, and I was hysterically laughing at least once per episode. And none of the humor felt forced. I always enjoy a bit of comedy with my drama, so good job to the writers for giving me that.

I did have one major issue.

Those vampires were messy as fuck when they ate. Come on guys. You wasted more blood than you drank. No wonder you had to kill so many people. You got maybe two sips out of each person. Do better.

Oh. One more thing. Louis and Lestat are in a romantic relationship. I know this. Pretty much everyone I ever discussed the book with know this. Anne Rice confirmed they were lovers. The only thing this show changed in their relationship is that it is mentioned and talked about and shown. So if you don't like that, don't watch the show. Also, what the fuck are you doing on my blog? The vampires having sex in this show is a little odd since aside from a brief thing in the Pandora book, they don't do that in the books. But hey, sex sells. I'm not even a little mad that the show made the vampires horny as fuck. Still a little mad about how messy they eat though. Dear gods... 

Oh. And one last thing. Armand is pretty. I am so happy to see my baby looking so pretty. Not that Antonio Banderas is an unattractive man, but he was just not Armand to me. And while this actor isn't a 15-year-old boy with auburn curls, I am happy with him. Can't wait for more Armand.

The show only covered the first half of the book, so I cannot wait for more. I need more. Give me more AMC.

That's all for this week. See y'all next Wednesday 👋🏻

I Watched These Things And I Think You Should Too

Time for another round of streaming recommendations!

Oh yeah. Changed the title of this series of posts or whatever.

To refresh, I give y'all six movies/TV shows/YouTube channels that I think are worth checking out and where you can stream them. I also try to give a list of warnings if there are any applicable. And then I ramble a bit about why I enjoyed each one.

Moon Knight

Available on Disney+

Warnings:

Violence, Temporary Character Death, Mental Health Issues

I knew basically nothing about Moon Knight before I watched this show. I knew there was a guy named Marc Spector that had D.I.D. (Dissociative Identity Disorder). And that Moon Knight had something to do with Egyptian Mythology. I had two friends telling me it was good, and as it’s a Marvel show I was of course going to watch it. But I didn’t expect much aside from me being confused.

Holy. Shit.

The show was just… soooooo gooooood.

I know next to nothing about D.I.D. I know the basics, so I cannot say how well the show did at representing the disorder. But as an outsider I can say it was interesting to watch how they did it. And Oscar Isaacs did a fantastic job playing two very different characters.

The designs for the gods were fantastic. I fell in love with Taweret at her first appearance. The costume designs were also fantastic.

Thanks to Rick Riordan’s Kane Chronicles, I knew a bit about Egyptian Mythology so I wasn’t super confused about any of that. Not sure how confused people who knew nothing about it would be. I feel like they did a great job at explaining who was who without it getting boring, but again, I know some shit so it might not have been enough of an explanation for some people.

Also, there is no reference to any of the other Marvel shows or movies, so if you’re behind (or haven’t watched any of it) you can easily jump in and watch this one without being confused or missing the point of things.

The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell

Available on Netflix

Warnings:

Very dark humor at times

This show is what would happen if Martha Stewart was part of the Addams Family.

Basically, the show focuses on Christine and the... 🤔 well, the weirdos that live with her. They’re puppets. Fantastic and weird puppets. And while things happen, Christine shows the audience how to make things. Food and crafts. The humor is hilariously dark. The whole show is beautifully done. Really wish there was more of it.

That Chapter

Linky Link

Available on YouTube

Warnings:

This is a true-crime channel, so a lot of murder, assault, pieces of shit human beings

This channel was recommended to me by a friend and I fell in love with it immediately. I like true crime stuff normally, but Mike is slowly becoming my favorite person to tell me about shit humans doing shit things to other humans. A few reasons for that. The accent. Mmm… Love me an accent. No matter what accent it is, if they are talking about something that interests me, an accent just makes it better. Can’t help it. Second, his shit humor. He makes bad jokes. Jokes that make you want to groan and facepalm. But, those bad jokes really break up the horrendous shit he is talking about so I like it. And third, his unapologetic way of insulting the criminals. Most true crime stuff I watch isn’t nice to the criminals, but Mike over there is calling them right cunts and I like that. Also, I fully enjoy the Life Insurance dance.

Psych

Available on Amazon Prime

Warnings:

Lots of murder. A whole lot of lying.

The show starts off with Shawn Spencer calling in a tip about a crime to the cops. And then he (stupidly) goes to the police station to ask about a reward. The cops think he had something to do with the crime because his tip was right. So he declares he’s a psychic. Cause that will work out. Oh. Wait. They believe him. And for eight years or so, he drags his best friend, Gus, along to crime scenes to help solve crimes.

There is so much I love about this show.

Shawn and Gus’s friendship is fantastic. Even though Shawn is a manipulative ass to Gus a lot of the time.

I think the humor is well done. Writing is great. And I loved all the characters. 

I don't like crime dramas really (aside from ones with Sherlock Holmes) but I do love me some crime comedies. And that is what I would classify Psych as. There is a crime. There is a good amount of comedy. And I love it.

Doctor Who

Available on HBOMax

Warnings:

Temporary Character Death, some violence, fearful situations

It took me awhile to get around to watching Doctor Who. I knew of it when I was a kid, but never watched it. Then, one night I left BBC America on and a couple episodes played. Water of Mars and Voyage of the Damned. I was hooked. I ended up getting Netflix just to watch it. This was back when the show was still on Netflix. Caught up on it all (well, the New Who stuff that started in 2005) in about a week. Which, at that point, Matt Smith was in his second or third season. It is such a good show.

Basically, Doctor Who is about the Doctor, a Time Lord that travels through space and time. Picking up strays and causing trouble by accident (mostly by accident).

This show is great. I don't think I can really shove it into a genre. There are sci-fi elements. Fantasy elements. Comedy. Drama. Historical fiction. So many genres are shoved into shows and it all seems to work. 

And, for those that do want to start watching it, you can just start with the series that started in 2005 and have no problems. There are nods to the older episodes and a few references, but not enough that it takes away from the show.

What We Do in the Shadows

Available on Hulu

Warnings:

Death, violence, sex…

One day I was sitting at my friend's house talking about how I wanted a comedy with vampires and werewolves and shit. And she replied with "Oh, do I have something to show you". Then we watched the What We Do In the Shadows movie (which is available for purchase on Amazon Prime and I highly recommend watching it as well, but it's not necessary to watch the show). The movie was fantastic, so I was super excited when a show was announced. And the show is just as great!

The show follows four vampires - Nandor, Laszlo, Nadja, and Colin Robinson- and Nandor's familiar - Guillermo - as a TV crew documents their lives. And their lives are hilarious. 

Characters are all great. Costuming is spectacular. 

That's all for this week. See y'all next Wednesday 👋🏻

Stephy Plays Animal Crossing: New Horizons

 Day Six

Last time on Hades...

 I got my museum built. And gave y'all a little tour. 

This time? 

Nothing exciting happened. But have some pictures anyway. 

This one will be quite short. Sorry, not sorry. I still played for over an hour trying to collect the materials I need for Nook's shop.

This is the outside of my house. I bought myself a little fire flower from the Mario promotion stuff. Love it. It wiggles.

I have a smug face. And yes. I am still wearing the face bandages.

Catching wasps is hard. Usually, I just get stung.

And that's all my new fish and bugs.

Hopefully, I get the shop built soon. Gods, I just want the Able Sisters on my island. I miss buying new clothes every day. 

I also bought some pumpkin sprouts. Not sure where I want my pumpkin patch to be yet, though so they're still in my inventory. 

That's all for this week. 

See y'all next Wednesday 👋🏻