Anime Review: Demon Slayer - Season 2 - The Mujen Train Arc

 

The following is a review of the Season 2 rendition of what was also the first Demon Slayer movie, The Mujen Train Arc. I find it funny, in our last review involving Demon Slayer, I complained of the fact that we spent what seemed like six episodes taking on a single demon which was one of the weaker of the 12 high ranking demons, and yet this entire season is all about a single demon except for the first episode which is a precursor to the previously mentioned demon; and I did not mind this time around. Maybe it was because I had it in my mind that I was actually watching a movie, and therefore it's okay that it was only involving a single demon. This show provides a lot of insight into what kind of people our three main heroes are. Tortured souls who want to help the world, but also crazy loons who probably shouldn't be provided a weapon. Overall, I would give it a 4 out of 5-star rating just like the first season. I may even consider giving it a 4.5 star because I didn't end up disliking part of it like with the first season. I would definitely consider watching it again if I were given the choice.

*** SPOILERS BELOW ***

• Episode 1 - Flame Hashira Kyojuro Rengoku
• We start the season off with a slight jump from where we left off, but not much, I don't think. We left off getting onto a train, here we are already on the train, but with different characters, and they are enjoying odon. We do get a little backstory into a train that had a murder occur on it, and rumors about it being kept in a secret spot. 
• I love that we can accept a mass murderer slasher guy existing and being scared of it, but we will not accept that a demon could exist and be said slasher. 
• So, apparently, just as the blood can smell sweet from certain folks, the blood of some folks can be just as revolting to demons. Wow, he grew back his hands almost instantly! 
• Flame breathing - first form - unknowing fire.
• The fire demon slayer guy gives vibes comparable to Almight from My Hero Academia.
• OH! It's not a time jump at all! We got a preview before the end of the last season! This episode ended with our main characters getting onto the train.
• Episode 2 - Deep Sleep
• The fire demon slayer guy really has an appetite! We learn that, like there are 4 elements in the Avatar, there are 5 types of elemental breathing techniques in this show: fire, water, air, rock, and thunder. 
• There was not one but two demons on the train, but that felt almost too easy for it being a plot of an entire movie... Also, the flame guy agreed to mentor all of our mains in using swords. I WAS RIGHT! Everyone on the train was put to sleep. ... There's an army of demon children waiting to awaken? Or are they just regular children being influenced by a demon? No, they have to be demons because they were told to be careful so that the demon slayers would not notice the stench of the demon when being tied up. 
• We get a glimpse into each of their dreams; Tanjiro dreams of his family. The demon kids are tying themselves to the demon slayers, not tying them up. Why? Are they trying to enter their dreams? To kill them in their dreams? 
• Episode 3 - Should Have Been
• The yellow kimono man dreams of drowning, but then it changes to dating Nezuko instead? Oh, maybe they are literally drowning because boar head guy is drowning too, and his dream makes Nezuko his bunny companion, and the other two are a raccoon and a mouse taking care of whatever he tells them to do. Fire mentor man dreams of telling his father all he has accomplished, but it seems like he knows something is off. Can you really just quit being a Hashira? I thought once a demon hunter, always a demon hunter. So the demon kids can rip into the spiritual core of a being and kill them by entering into their dreams and ripping through the corner of that dream. The girl failed at killing the fire mentor man, but he doesn't seem awake either, just super protective. I wonder if it's because of using total breathing around the clock? I wonder if the spell affects demons or if Nezuko is secretly awake in her box... where is her box? THERE SHE IS. I have a funny way of saying things a little too early. Not Nezuko hurting herself by headbutting her brother. But she is helping wake him up, so that's good. Tanjiro's soul is a beautiful and peaceful blue sky with fluffy white clouds. 
• Tanjiro sees a figure in the woods in his dream, his father, maybe? An older version of him? Who knows. But the comment is made that what he must cut is within his reach, and we as the viewers know it's the edge of the dream, but Tanjiro thinks it's his OWN FRICKEN HEAD THAT NEEDS TO BE CUT OFF?!?
• Episode 4 - Insult
• Tanjiro has little baby sun blobs in his core. I feel like they could be his siblings. It seems that cutting off his own head worked, though, so that's good, I suppose.
• Boar Head Man found the demon kid in his dream, so she failed. And the yellow kimono boy has pitch black in his core because he is crazy?
• Why is Tanjiro starting to rush toward the demon on his own? Shouldn't he have tried harder to wake the others first? So while fighting this demon, he is apparently being put back to sleep over and over, and every single time he cuts his own head off to reawaken and take out the demon. So the demon gives him a nightmare instead to throw him off. But Tanjiro still prevails. The demon then turns into some weird big blob monster. Except the blog monster is not the demon either, the demon is the train. The train needs to be completely destroyed. Boar head man woke up! Yay! Now Tanjiro won't be alone!
• Episode 5 - Move Forward!
• The tentacles are taking over the train, gross. Beast breathing, fifth form, crazy sword slash. I don't think Demon Train Man was expecting another demon to be on the train. Is it weird that he couldn't sense her? The sleeping yellow kimono man came to Neziko's aid. Fire mentor man fully woke up and lit the whole train on fire. Boar head goes back and forth between being chill and working with the group, and being a butt face and being rude, and I really don't like it. I get why he was tough to begin with, but I really thought he was coming around to the teamwork thing by now and was going to be chill with them the rest of the series. Maybe it's just the dream that made him act this way. 
• They are struggling to stay awake; every time they wake up, they look into one of the Demon's eyes, which puts them right back to sleep. Good defense mechanism though tbh. Also, Tanjiro just almost got tricked into cutting his own head off in real life because he thought he was asleep again, but he wasn't. 
• Beast breathing; 4th form - slice and dice. 
• Tanjiro used his father's technique again and severed the head of the demon off by severing the entire front end of the train off. 
• Episode 6 - Akaza
• The demon is going through an existential crisis.
• The fire mentor guy taught Tanjiro how to heal himself using total concentration. Another high-ranking demon comes to try and take out Tanjiro, fire mentor man slices his arm in half in the protection of Tanjiro, but the demon makes it whole again without a second to delay. The rest of this is just a fight ... 
• Episode 7 - Set Your Heart Ablaze!
• Fire mentor guy puts up a good fight, even gets Tanjiro's scar as a wound himself, but unfortunately, he dies. Having the fight music stop while they are fighting is kind of weird and gross, not going to lie.
• We get a flashback to Fire Mentor Man's mom telling him to only ever use his strength to protect those who are weaker, and then we come back to him mustering up as much of his remaining strength as he can to try and cut off the demon's head. He unfortunately failed. Debatably because Tanjiro and the Boar Head kid tried to help, and the demon said I'm out. And Tanjiro then sends his sword flying toward the demon as he is running away into the woods, he manages to pierce him very well, but now he is down a sword again. 

Anime Review: Demon Slayer Season 1

Now, the following is obviously my own opinion; yours could vary. Overall, I will say that this has been a good show to follow this first season. We get a lot of different characters, all with their own character development and their own stories to tell; they just all happen to lead to a combined and intertwined path that will lead them to a catastrophic end. Not that we see that catastrophic end in this season, it's just something we can expect and continue to anticipate later on. Some funny little things I have picked up on throughout this season, like the fact that the scar we see on our main character's forehead changes between the first episode and the second, as well as the fact that our art style depiction of the characters adjusts to one more cartoonish and child friendly in the end compared to the crisp animation lines we saw in the pilot episode; make it seem as though there was almost a miscommunication between parties or a switch up on who was in charge, and not just once but twice or maybe more. It was not so big of a difference to make me unwilling to follow along, but it was enough of a difference to notice. The only point during this show that I really no longer wanted to watch included the 6 or so episodes toward the end of the season, when we are stuck watching the same battle drawn out over what felt like far too long a period. I also did not fully understand why we needed the full backstory of how the demon family had come together; just knowing that our main character could see and empathize with his sorrow in the human life would have sufficed, I feel like. But maybe that is just me. Again, overall, not a bad watch, enjoyed the style and the culture mixed into the fictitious storytelling. I would give it 4 out of 5 stars with a high probability of watching again.

*** SPOILERS BELOW ***

• Episode 1 - Cruelty
• When starting the series, our main character already has his scar on his face; what caused his scar? He clearly cares for his family as he puts their finances and health before his own, trying to work through the snowstorm and get down the mountain to the town to earn money. On his way back though, he stops for the night at a kind villager's house, and in the meantime, his family is being slaughtered. Slaughtered by demons, demons that our main character then makes it his duty to seek revenge on. I will note, the main character does appear much older and more mature in this first episode than I have seen him depicted as in later episodes. It could just be that he is cleaner and put together here, and that he is faced with much turmoil that leaves him in disarray. He tries running down the mountain toward a doctor with the only warm-bodied member of his deceased family, but it's too late; his sister is infected. Will this series result in him finding a cure for her? Also, it's weird to think that you can be turned into a demon just as you can be turned into a zombie; are they zombies in some cultures and demons in others?
• The demon hunter that comes and seems to want to turn our main character into a demon hunter himself gives far too much advice and sympathizes too much with them; it makes him weak as well. But it's nice that he decides to let them go and help, especially since Nezuko really seems to still hold onto at least a part of her humanity and wants to protect her brother.
• Episode 2 - Trainer Sakonji Urokodaki
• Our main character stops at a farm and gets a basket so that he can continue to travel with his sister, even though she can not be exposed to daylight, almost like demons are a cross between zombies and vampires? They honestly probably lean more toward vampires; they can't be in sunlight, they can make themselves larger and stronger than their human form when they go full demon, and they are turnt by having their blood come in contact with the demon blood of another. But I don't think vampires can heal like that, so hence part zombie. Along the way to the mountain they were told to go to by the demon hunter, they came across another demon actively eating humans. Their entire interaction is so funny because the demon ends up in multiple pieces thanks to them teaming up, but the demon is still fighting and creeping out Tanjiro... Tanjiro headbutts the demon, and the demon complains ... what is so special about his forehead that it's so hard? HE JUMPED OFF A CLIFF. So the only way to kill a demon is to cut off its head and completely destroy it. Or have him burnt in the sun. Why are some of the graphics so crisp, like they should be in 4k, and others are so completely and utterly obviously animated? 
• So Tangiro is put through a test to determine if he can be put into the demon corp. After getting to a hut at the base of the mountain, he is then taken through the forest and told he must make it back to the cabin on his own before morning. He must face thin air and numerous traps in the darkness. He makes it. 
• Episode 3 - Sabito and Makomo
• We get to know a bit more about the demon corp, and we get to see more of his training in this episode. As the obstacles get harder and new elements get added, like using a sword. That's most of the episode, just him training and getting stronger. His final test? To cut a giant boulder into two. Where has Nezuko been this entire time, you may ask? Asleep. No idea why. They called a doctor and everything. During his time trying to cut the rock, Tajiro is visited by the ghosts of former students (although I don't think he realizes they are ghosts. But also, we don't technically learn that they are ghosts for quite some time; I just happen to know because this is a little bit of a rewatch for me.
• Episode 4 - Final Selection
• We get a brief review of our main character slicing through the boulder, and then we continue the story; we learn that the reason he cut through the boulder is because he could see the threads that connect everything, the thread that is the weak point. It is after this that we learn of the dead children and how the master did not want to lose another student, but he believes that Tanjiro is worthy and will continue to take care of his sister while he is at the Final Selection test. Also, he cuts his hair, THANK GOD. He looked off with his super-long hair. For the remainder of this episode, I would just suggest you picture the Hunger Games. They are all put into the arena and must take out a demon and survive for 7 days. They don't technically need to fight each other, just take out the demons, but they also end up fighting each other. We do get to see some of the different forms of breathing he has learned. Fourth form: striking tide. Second form: water wheel. And this is when Tangiro finally realizes that the kids were ghosts. First form: water surface slash.
• That gross demon boss he is facing has eaten all of the teacher's students and has built up some gross-looking arm tentacles that guard his neck, making it really hard to slice off his head.
• Episode 5 - My Own Steel
• He did it. Tanjiro destroys the demon, or at least his outer layer. We then get to see his inner form and how sad he was to become a demon. We see the humanity that he lost when he became a demon against his will. We also get to see all the dead students who can now pass on because the cycle has ended. It's funny that our main character got bloodied up exactly where the scar is on his head. Wonder what that symbolism could mean. The rest of the week seems to go by relatively easily for him, even though he is searching for a solution from the other demons on how he can turn his sister back. 
• Out of 20 folks who went into the test, 4 of them survived. Only one girl. The yellow-robed guy has a lot of self-doubt, and the purple-robed man has a temper and really just wanted a sword. I don't think there was any reason he should have been accepted. Also, apparently there was a 5th survivor, but we only saw 4?
• Upon his return, Nezuko is awake.
• He gets his sword, and apparently, it changes color depending on the wielder, and they were hoping for red for some reason, and the sword turned pitch black, which is apparently pretty rare. Once he has gotten his sword, he gets a message from a crow with his first mission to help a nearby town where young girls are disappearing.
• Episode 6 - Swordsman Accompanying a Demon
• "I don't care if I'm destined for greatness", as he sets out to achieve greatness by turning his sister back... did his scar change shape? Eighth form: water fall basin. The demon split himself into three, and each form of him can think and speak, and act independently. Even the demons are confused as to why a human and a demon are working together. But you know what, that's fine, together they will obliterate them all. 
• So the teacher guy used hypnosis on Nezuko and made her believe with her everything that all humans are her family and that if anyone tries to hurt any human, she should attack the demon because they are harming her family. This explains why she starts helping her brother fight.
• Episode 7 - Muzan Kibutsuji
• Our main character goes underground to fight the demons, and they think he is going to be slow, but he is even better down in their swamp. My issue is, if he is in their fake swamp, when he kills them, will he still be able to get out? Sixth form: whirlpool. He finally finds a demon who knows who he is talking about when he asks about the first demon, and the demon has been sworn to secrecy. As if he isn't going to die regardless, he should have just told him. 
• Tanjiro immediately gets another quest from the crows to go to a nearby town for a demon, and it turns out he recognizes the scent; it's the first demon, the one who turned his sister. But he has a wife and a child, both of whom are human; this rattles Tanjiro, and the first demon then scratches a passing guy, who then immediately turns into a demon, and Tanjiro must stop him while the first demon guy gets away.
• Episode 8 - The Smell of Enchanting Blood
• While trying to restrain the freshly turned demon person, the first demon got away with his family; another demon, who seems to have quite a bit of experience, then comes to Tanjiro's aid and distracts the police, who do not seem to know what a demon is, and offers assistance because she also wants to get revenge on the first demon. She can use her blood to create hallucinations. 
• The first demon assigns two under demons to attack the main character, and he identifies him by his earrings, what is the significance of the earrings? I assume a family heirloom, what's the power his family possessed that he didn't even realize? Nezuko and Tanjiro then follow the one assistant guy back to the doctor demon's secret hideaway. 
• I thought only the first demon man could turn somebody into a demon? Oh, she is over 200 years old. 
• The extra demons find our main characters in the hidden hospital using their blood skills to track the footsteps. They then destroy the hospital by bouncing a ball. Then the episode ends because why wouldn't there be a cliffhanger?
• Episode 9 - Temari Demon and Arrow Demon
• This episode is the fight between the first demon's minions and Tanjiro. They have some weird ball that acts like a boomerang. Seventh form: drop ripple thrust. We get our first telling of the 12 kubitsi whom the doctor lady wants blood samples from.  Where does the demon girl hide her extra arms? She has six of them and six balls apparently too. Is that part of her blood skill? How do they get blood skills? Third form: flowing dance. I wonder what the medicine the doctor lady gives Nezuko has in it. Second form improved: lateral water wheel. Do you think all demon hunters have these types of moves? Do you think they can all modify their moves to face harder foes?
• Episode 10 - Together Forever
• Tanjiro looked like he had the guy demon taken care of, but then he wasn't, and he had to use all the water forms to escape. He broke his leg and a rib and decided to try and crawl his way to help the others. Meanwhile, Nezuko is playing soccer with the demon girl. xD. Oh dang, if they say the first demon guy's name, then they get ripped inside out by beast arms? At least they have her blood. If the demons were not part of the 12 Kiezuki, then why did they claim to be? 
• How is it that our main character can see the original humans of the demons as they are dying?
• The doctor demon offers to take Nezuko with them a they move to keep her safe, but Nezuko doesn't want to be separated from her brother, and neither does he.
• As Nezuko and Tanjiro are leaving, they get their next assignment, and they also come across one of the guys from the "Final Selection" begging some random girl along the path to marry him. 
• Episode 11 - Tsuzumi Mansion
• We literally just watch the two demon slayers walk along a path together. That is, until they get their combined assignment, and then we are watching them walk to that together. When they finally come across the house with the demon that they are meant to take care of, there are 2 little kids sitting outside. The two demon hunters then go into the house, and the kids follow them in. As they are moving around within the house, the rooms shift, the rooms change to other rooms, and there's a man with a hog mask on. It's just a lot of chaos.
• Episode 12 - The Boar Bares Its Fangs, Zenitsu Sleeps
• We watch as Tanjiru starts to pick up on the patterns of the shifting rooms and as the yellow kimono man continues to be a coward. We also see a little bit more of the hog mask man and his ruined swords that he seems to love because they "cut flesh". Is this the kid who we didn't see but also finished the final test? So yellow kimono man finally stepped up and embodied his actual demon hunter-ness. What changed? Besides his voice, I mean. He uses thunder breathing. The hog, in comparison, uses beast breathing. As it turns out, one of the demons in the house was at one point one of the 12 kusekis, but then he was removed, and the first demon guy put a giant 'X' in his eye over his number. 
• Episode 13 - Something More Important Than Life
• We get to see our main character conquer yet another demon as he still cares about humanity and respects the creations of the demon, including his storytelling. In this episode, we also get a very short look into how the yellow kimono man knew that Tanjiro had a demon with him the entire time, and yet he still opted to be beaten near death by the boar head demon hunter to protect it because he knew it was important to his friend. 
• Episode 14 - The House With the Wisteria Family Crest
• In this episode, we watch as the kids get a chance to go home, and our demon slayer heroes get a chance to relax. It's weird that after sending our main character to place after place after place, fighting demons, and then suddenly the crow tells them that they can relax and heal up. 
• Episode 15 - Mount Natagumo
• The group is fully healed now, and the boar-headed man seems to be chill with the demon sister now. Also, the three of them are all getting sent out on a mission together. On this quest, they come across another demon slayer who is stuck to demon threads in a forest. This mission they were sent on was first given to 10 others who had pretty much all failed. Our mains should definitely get a level up at this point because like tf you mean they are still basics? 
• Didn't the doctor demon lady say that the demons aren't allowed to group up? How do we keep having family units and multiples and all that jazz?
• Episode 16 - Letting Someone Else Go First
• This episode shows the boar head guy and our main work to decipher how literal strings were attached to the demon slayers, controlling their every move and causing them to attack one another, even though it is against their code. Eventually, they get the hang of it though, and they find a way to save their friends by throwing them up over branches to dangle and wait. Except not actually, because the spider lady just gave up on them and killed them all instead. And then she kind of just gave up on living, and that left a big opening for our mains to win the war. Fifth form: blessed water after the drought. 
• Episode 17 - You Must Master a Single Thing
• It looks like our yellow kimono demon slayer found the other demon that was here and needs to be taken care of. This spider demon is like an actual spider though, rather than mostly human, like the lady Tanjiro took care of. How did he not feel a spider bite him? The amount the poison has messed up his hand feels like he should've felt something. 
• We got a flashback to when blondie wasn't blonde... why is he blonde now? ... Oh, he was struck by lightning. So his sleep unlocks his abilities. His single ability. We get a lot of looks into his own training and how he was taught that it's okay to cry and be scared, but to always know you are capable of doing stuff on your own, and that it is okay to only have one skill, so long as you are a master in that skill. 
• Episode 18 - A Forged Bond
• They finally send in some of the higher demon lsayer corp people as they are just about finished taking out the entire spider demon family... how helpful. Also, the characters are Naruto running... why do we call it Naruto running if so many animes use it? 
• Spider brother is killing his own sister. Wait, they get money for killing demons? I knew it was their job, but I didn't realize it was a paying job. There are so many spider siblings, more than I realized. And the way in which they are some mostly human and others mostly spider is really confusing to me. 
• HE BROKE HIS SWORD
• Episode 19 - Hinokami
• The yellow kimono man slowed his breathing, which stopped him from turning into a spider long enough to receive the antidote. 
• Nezuko came out of her box to save her brother, and now the spider guy wants to take her as his own little sister.
• Tanjiro starts to remember the sun technique.
• Episode 20 - Pretend Family
• So we thought that using the remembered sun technique killed the spider brother, but it was a rogue. The spider demon cut his own head off. Spider guy made his own family by turning the people into demons and saving them. 
• We just keep getting more info about their fake family. Honestly, it's kind of boring and repetitive at this point. Just kill them already. Who cares if he wanted a fake family?
• Episode 21 - Against Corps Rules
• ...This is the backstory of the spider demon man... for what? Also, what happened to him getting blood samples? 
• Just as they are going to kill Nezuko, the crows come with a message that Tanjiro and Nezuko are meant to be brought to HQ alive.
• Episode 22 - Master of the Mansion
• They want to put Tanjiro on trial. The highest-level demon slayer person comes out and states that Tanjiro and Nezuko are sanctioned in all their work, that she is helping to take out the other demons. 
• Episode 23 - Hashira Meeting
• This felt like a filler episode where they just discussed how they felt the other demon slayers were weak and not useful in any regard, except for Tanjiro, whom they can use to lure out the 12 kanjiro or whatever they are called.
• Episode 24 - Rehabilitation Training
• All three of the guys have to go through rehabilitation to work on their muscles, and it's the blondie who gets the other two guys to actually start mastering stuff. But then the blondie and the boar head quit on the final task. It's only Tanjiro who keeps at it, and he eventually finds out that the secret is he needs to be able to use total breathing all day, every day in order to be a master. 
• The butterfly lady wants to befriend demons.
• I feel like the graphics of the show just get more basic and childish in style the longer the show continues.
• Episode 25 - Tsuguko, Kanao Tsuyuri
• This one just seems to be them learning to do the total breathing 24/7.
• Episode 26 - New Mission
• The first demon person is a shape-shifter? He sounds male still, but looks female now. Also, he killed off a bunch of his demon minions. 
• How have they never seen or heard of a train, but they have them in this world? Well, here starts their next mission, I guess. As well as the end of the first season, the longest season.

A Moment To Remember

We try to avoid the touchy subjects around these parts, topics such as politics or religion; but sometimes you can't help but discuss something that impacted not only your own country, but all countries around the world.

Today, we take a moment to remember the tragedy that was the fall of the World Trade Centers. There were countless lives ruined on this day 24 years ago. The scars are still felt from those who were there that day and lived to tell the tale of the devastation. The numbers will never be accurate but that day we lost approximately 1,700 lives from the North Tower, an additional 1,000 from the South Tower, 125 lives in the Pentagon, and somewhere around 265 more on various flights that crashed. These casualties were felt that day and every day since then for those families. Since these events, more lives have been lost. As of 2014, nearly 1,400 additional lives had been lost due to medical conditions caused by the collapse of the towers.

Today, in place of the towers are two large craters. Two reminders of what was once a center of business for the world. Two dedications to many of the lives that were lost that day and continue to be lost every day. 

Thank you to all the men and women in every city, in every state, in every country, on every continent, who do their best each and every day to make the world a better place, who strive to help save lives instead of take them. We commend you and your bright spirit that burns like an ember in your soul.

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone

So Rambo made me write about this book because it took me like a year to read, and there was one thing that stood out to me that was very different in the book than it was in the movie. It is simply the line in the scene where the golden trio have to make it across the chessboard to go get the stone. In the movie, it was Ron saying 'Do you want to stop Snape from getting the stone or not? Harry, it's you who has to go on, I know it. Not me, not Hermione, you.' I thought this was a very powerful moment in the movie as it shows Ron will sacrifice himself for the greater good. I really liked the scene, it was very quotable and I think about it often, but in the book it's rather different. 'It's the only way... I've got to be taken.' and Harry and Hermione shout no, to which Ron replies, 'That's chess! You've got to make some sacrifices. There isn't really a big song and dance about how Harry needs to go on. It actually happens that in the book there is a next room with a puzzle that Hermione solves for Harry to progress to the final boss.

Something noticeable about the book that is different from the movie was another quote from Ron where he says, 'Now, don't be offended or anything, but neither of you is that good at chess.' I don't remember anything like this in the movie, although it has been some years since I last did a re-watch of the Harry Potter movies, and I may have to do so now after I have written this to fact-check myself. 

Thank you so much for reading. I'm sorry it's not longer, but I didn't exactly take notes on when I was reading the book about things I should write about. I hope you all have a great rest of your day, and I will see you in the next one.

Lilly's thoughts and opinions on the recent changes to Dead By Daylight

Hello and welcome to some game talk. I try my best to play a lot of games, but I keep going back to a few favorites every time. Dead by Daylight is one of those games, and if you have seen any of my YouTube content, it is probably something related to Dead by Daylight. I don't quite have 1000 hours in the game yet, but as of me writing this, I have 900 hours in the game on Steam, so I am getting there. Dead by Daylight was my gateway into gaming with friends, as I had played a few games on my Xbox and Nintendo DS that were solo, such as Minecraft, Disney Dreamlight Valley, and Nintendogs. But Dead by Daylight was my first game that wasn't really in my comfort zone, and it was multiplayer. My sister said I should try it, and I did. That very night, after I had downloaded it, I hopped into a VC with her friends and tried the game. I wasn't the biggest fan at first, as everything was new, including these people with whom I was now hanging out. For those who don't know, I am an introvert. I don't really like meeting new people or spending time with people, but it has gotten better through streaming, and I am decent at hanging out with people online if I know them a little. Streaming was a way to take me out of my comfort zone, and it really has! I have met some wonderful people through playing DBD and through streaming. I am so glad I tried both. 

Once I got more into the game Dead By Daylight I then experienced some of the different events that they have started doing more often for example the anniversary events of the game being out turned into playing the game as much as possible and getting all the blood points I possibly could because the blood point bonus cakes were in the blood web at the time so it turned into a whole grind situation. Then they started doing the 2v8 limited-time event game mode, and I absolutely love this, as you can play as a killer with your friends. It's so much fun, but it takes roughly 20 minutes to get a match as a killer, and if you are playing survivor, you can get a match almost instantly. I love this game mode so much that I even made a series on it for YouTube, so if you would like to see what I am talking about, you can head on over and check it out. It's called through the killer's eyes. I am recording the content for season two of this series, as so many people loved it. When Behaviour (The makers of the game Dead By Daylight) brought this game mode back, they had added a new feature for the killer. The feature is that if you are playing Killer, you don't have to wait in these ridiculously long killer queues; you can ready up with your friend you are playing killer with for a survivor game. The ratio ends up being 2:1. You get about 2 games as a survivor before you get 1 killer game. This is okay if you like both sides, and I do. However, it can be a little annoying going back and forth. I have been clicking wrong buttons as the killer because when I load into the killer match, my brain is still in survivor mode, plus with my series hanging in the balance, I would like to get more killer games recorded than survivor games. For the series, I like to have a total of twenty-two episodes, just like a regular TV series. 

Don't get me wrong, I love that they have made it so you can play as a survivor while you wait for a killer game. I  just wish the ratio were a little more balanced. They could introduce some incentives to have new people play the game, such as some free cosmetics for simply playing during the event, and not just a login bonus while this specific event is running. Maybe one day they will fix it, but maybe not. One can always hope.

Thank you so much for reading my mad ramblings. I hope you have a great rest of your day, and I will see you in the next one. 

Words May Not Be Knives But They Still Sting

"You aren't better than anybody."

As if I didn't already know that. Thank you so kindly for pointing it out and giving one final nail in the coffin to end the day.

I was not expecting those words to come out of your mouth. Not out of the mouth of somebody I thought I was on good terms with. Not out of the mouth of somebody who was my mentor. Not out of the mouth of somebody who just a few days ago was sending my Instagram reels about Build-A-Bear, and I was sending photos back because I already had seen and gotten it.

You saying those words, directed at me or otherwise, sent me spiraling. I didn't say anything back to you; it would have been disrespectful. But in my head, all I could think was, I know I'm not. I am less than worthy. I am less than dirt. All I could think about were all my faults, all the wrongs I have ever done in my entire life. How I wish I could take it all back, change every little detail. But then I realize I am not me without these flaws, without these mistakes. Some would even say I am not human without them.

Does it make me less sad, no, but it makes me realize just a little that the tears I held back then, the tears I let stream down my face as I was driving away later on, weren't worth shedding.

I shed them anyway, though, because words do hurt. They leave mental scars that are nearly impossible to heal.

Don't Stress, Know Your Worth

I took some time away from writing to catch up on content creation. 

I really hate to fall behind on anything, but it can be hard to find the motivation. I know personally, I have been struggling to keep on top of things recently, and I wanted to drop everyone a reminder that whatever you have going on in your life that you may be struggling with right now; you have the power to take control and not feel lost out at sea drowning like you may feel from time to time. 

If it's work that is taking over your life, set boundaries. It's not your job to take on more than you can do. Act your wage. I like this phrase because I was doing so much for the last company I worked for; they just kept piling things on me to get sorted on my shifts, and honestly, it was far too much. I think back to those times a lot; it helps me stay on the course I have set out for myself, and you can do the same. The extra tasks I was given were ridiculous since I worked nights, and more often than not, I was on my own trying to get everything done when I was picking up tasks that the staff who worked in the day time should have completed. I loved that job, but the more that was piled on that I couldn't handle, plus some of the staff being hostile, made work so stressful when it really didn't need to be. So only take on what you can handle. Do not overwhelm yourself with a company; after all, they would easily fill your position if you left. If they want to add more tasks to your daily to-do list, speak up, ask what compensation you will be getting for taking on the extra workload. 

You got this! ~ Lilly 

Letters I'll Never Send

Dear mom.

I'm sorry I've been spending so much time out of the house. I know you miss me, and you're probably worried sick, but I promise I'm keeping myself safe. I just don't know how to explain to you that being with him every day feels better than being in this house. Leaving J was a good idea, you know that and you agree with me. As much as you say that you don't care that I'm with T now I see the look in your eyes when I tell you I'm going out. the concern hidden behind the understanding. 

Enjoy the little things

 After my nan passed away it was weird to not have to go downstairs many times in an hour to make sure she was drinking. Looking at the empty bed where she stayed for many months before leaving us alone, was very strange. It felt wrong and still does. There is a few brighter things to think about such as the memories I made with her over my life, my fondest being something I was so embarrassed to think back on until now was me dancing around the dinning room with Christmas music playing to put on a 'show' for her. I was wearing a pink swimming consume covered in different sized poker dots and a bright green inflatable rubber ring. The rubber ring was mean to be a tutu and the swimming costume was as close to a leotard that I could get. I hated thinking back at that memory and always cringed when I did but hey its on the internet now and it will stay with me until the day I die. I do regret not getting to know her better as I got older but she would always spend time with her 'boyfriend' and i didn't want to spend time with the both of them because it was weird. I could not have a conversation with that guy at all, he was a very nice man and every easter he bought me a lint easter bunny. The one with the red ribbon with a bell. It was the same every year but other than the few passing moments with him, I didn't get to know him too well and technically he also electrocuted me. The pond in the garden has always had a bird problem... birds come and go and take fish with them. So this man was an electrician in the navy when he was working because at the time I knew him he was retired. Anyway he decided to put an electric fence around the pond to deter these birds. As a child I loved watching the fish in the pond swim around and it was even better when the frogs had layed their eggs and they would turn into tadpoles. I used to put my hands in the pond and let them pick off dead skin, it was a win win situation. I did it before it was cool to put your hands and feet in water with aquatic things to let them eat your dead skin cells and even better I didn't have to pay for it.

 Back to the original thought, once this fence was up around the pond he said it was safe as long as I didn't touch the wire. I didn't touch it before you think to yourself oh she's going to do that. I did not. I sat on the grass hands on the flat stones around the pond and guess what I could feel coursing through my body. If you guessed electric, congratulations you win. I told my dad and he was like oh thats weird but we moved on so for the few years this electric fence was around the pond I would always feel the electric in my arms while leaning on the stones to watch the fish live their care free lives. 

Many years later I was talking to my dad about it and apparently my nans 'boyfriend' had wired it in wrong and thats the whole reason I could feel it. Its almost like I knew what it should have been like, but no one listens to children. You can say you do but you don't trust in them the way you trust your partner or your parental figures. This is a warning if you are a parent really try to listen to your child/children if they have a concern. 

But for ages I thought i was super conductive. Sad to know the truth now. 

But this is a sort of goodbye post to my nan, I did love her and I hope she is having the very best time in the afterlife and its nice to think she is back with her boyfriend again and I didn't put that in quotations because of the last little story I want to share is that man I mentioned earlier also had dementia and they would still hang out, for years I made the joke that he was her boyfriend and when they both started getting further down the dementia path me and my dad found them kissing in the conservatory. It made me think I was right all those years. I don't know why they felt the need to hide it or if they had only just started a relationship i don't know but he went before her and its nice to think she has joined him.  

Music heals the soul

Today I was listening to music as I often do while working, I was responding to comments on YouTube listening to Disney music. Into the unknown came on it was Aurora's version. I have no idea how I have not heard this before today but wow I am blown away, she always finds a way to make a song airy and soft. To me her vibe is very fairy, she is a little strange and I love it, she is very much an introvert like myself. If you don't know much about her I'm going to give you a crash course and highly recommend her music if you have not listened to it. A little warning I cannot spell and her name is one of those things I struggle to spell without copying it letter by latter so you will see the words her and she a lot I am avoiding putting her name. Aurora is a Norwegian singer and song writer so a lot of her songs are different to the typical music you would hear out in the world and sticks to her roots, I really admire her for that, but I think that is what makes her so unique. I would not consider myself a super fan but I do think her music is very healing so if you are having a tough time maybe put her music on, get in a blanket with a hot drink in hand with some headphones on and tell me you don't feel better after that. I don't think you can. Because her vocals are very freeing and airy you can close your eyes and almost feel totally alone but at the same time know you aren't. No matter what happens in life know there is always someone there for you. Did you know she actually had a part in the version of into the unknown from the movie frozen 2. She calls herself a forest person this could be because she lives by a fjord surrounded by trees and small bumpy roads so not many cars are around making it peaceful.  As I'm writing this I have goosebumps and this will be my newest obsession song to listen to over and over for a while. I do not have a time frame at all but my last few obsession songs have been, pink pony club, hot to do, good luck babe and naked in Manhattan by Chappell Roan. Please please please, Taste and Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter. Running with The wolves, the seed and Runaway by Aurora and Running up that hill by Kate Bush. Thank you for reading, I hope you have a great day and stay hydrated you lovely beans <3

Productivity In Waves, Prepare When You Can

For the past week, I have been basically home alone, which has been great for getting work done but not so much with other things. I look after my nan, she has dementia, she is currently not interested in eating, and I don't want to get morbid, but I think the end is nigh. I have been so behind on work recently, too, so putting in the 5-6 extra hours a day has been great. I have managed to crack on with making videos. At the time of writing this, I think I have made at least 30 new videos for YouTube (I'm stocking up for winter). My dad won't want me on my pc in the winter because he is trying to save as much money on electricity as possible. I will still be on my pc from 8pm to 2am, but not from almost the moment I wake up to the moment I am heading to bed. Moving has its bonuses and its drawbacks. So I haven't worked out how many videos I need to cover me for the winter period. I hope it will be enough by the time it arrives. Yes, I know it's the summer now. Yeah, I know there's a lot of time, but it does creep up on you, and you have to be prepared for whatever life throws at you. I try my best to stay on top of my work, and then the things I take on to help other people out, because I'm like that. If I can help on a non-emotional topic, then I will try my best, sometimes by putting in hours of research. Not everyone I have spent hours upon hours helping has been as kind to me, but we move on, such is life and all that. I hope by the end of summer to have another season of a video series ready and scheduled. I would like to have at least tried 10 new games to sprinkle in, and it's not needed, but preferable to have at least 20 new video ideas that are fully formed. Going back to my whole nan situation, we did have some nutrient supplement drinks show up on the doorstep two or three days ago (as of when I am writing this).

So far, they have been a godsend, and I do not believe in the good book; I have my own thoughts and opinions about all that. The drinks come in four flavours, strawberry (they didn't have any in stock this time round), chocolate, banana and vanilla. Because I have been in charge I have been choosing what flavour each day Banana was day one and she said it was nice I was rather shocked that she spoke to me because it was a very non verbal day for her, Day 2 was vanilla she also said it was nice but drank far less and didn't keep telling me it was nice like she did on day one so I think the winning flavour so far is banana. Personally, I hate the banana one, it smells foul, too artificial for my liking, and the smell is strong, so it's not the most fun time, but hey, at least she is drinking it. We are looking into booking a funeral so we are prepared for the worst, but I might be fearing the worst when in reality, she could potentially outlive me. Better to be prepared for a storm than turn a blind eye, right?

Day 3 I tried my nan on the chocolate drink, I will just call it a milk shake because it has that sort of consistency she didn't say it was nice right way I think it was day 5 that she said it was nice, but since then she has not said a word to anyone, not me, not my dad or any of the carers. I think we are on about day 7 or 8 of these new drinks and they seem to be good for her but she doesn't put the cup on the table she puts it on her bedcover then moves later on and it goes all over the plastic covering the carpet specifically for this reason we have the plastic sheet on the floor, in fact it takes 3 sheets of this large plastic on the floor to protect the carpet from getting ruined. She has in the past poured a whole cup of tea on the floor on purpose and couldn't tell me why.

Edit: My nan died in her sleep on Monday the 23rd of June 2025

Happy Switch 2 Launch Day!

PlayStation 4 (released 2013) -> 1 million units in 24 hours

Sega Dreamcast (released 1998) -> 225k in 24 hours

PlayStation 2 (released 2000) -> 500k in a weekend

PlayStation 3 (released 2006) -> 197k in 2 weeks

Xbox 360 (released 2005) -> 326k in 2 weeks

Wii (released 2006) -> 600k in 8 days

Game releases are always big days for the gaming community. When people can, they enjoy staying up all night long and waiting in line overnight to become the first to get their hands on the flashy new toy. The launch of the Switch 2 has been no different. 

Gamers flocked to stores over 12 hours before the launch of the system and had overnight parties in stores waiting for the chime of the bell signaling the official release of the latest addition to the history of gaming consoles.

Not everyone may believe that this latest release is an actual improvement, but sometimes we set our expectations too high and fail to realize where we started and just how far we have come.

I unfortunately have not gotten my hands on this latest system just yet, but I hope to someday.

Have you gotten one for yourself?

Diet soda is a lie. I am outraged!

I was having a chat with Rambo on one of her streams, and somehow we got to discussing soda. I said I was drinking diet cola, but the conversation progressed to the point that diet soda lies to you. It isn't healthier than regular soda. I went away and did some research, and sure enough, almost every drink brand that markets its diet soda has way more sugar than a regular drink. The specific diet soda I was drinking (and will stop eventually), has 90 grams of sugar. The regular version has 27 grams. I even looked at some bottles of Lemonade my dad has one is full fat and one is diet. Diet soda contains supposedly artificial sweetener and full fat contains normal sugar. If you do enough digging you can find so many articles on how artificial sweetener is actually worse for you than regular sugar. One artificial sweetener is aspartame this has been linked to causing cancer and can be found in many diet sodas. It was discovered in 1965 and is around 180-200 times sweeter than sugar from sugar cain. This specific sweetener was only approved to be used in dry food in 1981. Thats a whole 16 years that it took for the sweetener to be approved for use in dry food by the FDA. Aspartame is marketed to have zero calories but yet it can cause you to gain weight, you can obtain a mood disorder by consuming this sweetener. While there are many articles online telling you it has not been conclusively linked to serious side effects and health issues, these articles still tell you to be careful ingesting this specific substance. Its like they want to lie to you and just give you a glimmer of the truth. Be careful what you put into your body because anything could cause you a problem. If you have any health issues that have arisen since drinking these diet sodas please consider switching. When doing your weekly shop watch out for purchasing anything with the words; diet, low calorie, no calories, low or no sugar. Yes shopping just got a lot harder but maybe something health wise will improve. 

There is not much research on the topic of benefits of diet soda. It does say it reduces fatty liver and detrimental effects of normal coke. However it doesn't list these supposed 'detrimental' effects of regular cola if they wanted us to know the truth you would not have to do so much research on a specific subject to come up with a small pile of answers. You are left with way more questions than you are answers. Does this feel like a cover up to you? 

Thank you for reading my most technical post I have done so far who know I may be more outraged in the future be safe out there peeps <3

Did You Know You Can Control Your Dreams?

Welcome to my very excited segment of how I had my first lucid dream after trying for years to manipulate my dreams. 

A little backstory, quickly, I stopped saying good night to people and started saying sweet nightmares because I would have nightmares way more often than dreams, it felt like a little secret that was mine and mine alone. I was hoping that their nightmares would be sweet and nothing like what my brain was coming up with. 

For years, I had dreams of being chased by clowns, drowning, seeing everyone I loved die in horrific manors, and the worst one SPIDERS. I do not like spiders one iota (one 'bit' for my American friends). 

My first lucid dream was me exploring an abandoned caravan. This place was filthy, covered in dust, and had large cobwebs everywhere. The last location in this caravan I explored was the bedroom. This was where the nest of black widow spiders lived. I went in and found a huge female spider; she told me she was the queen and controlled all her children. She continued on saying I would not get out alive. She tried sending her children to feast upon the meal that stood before them (me), but none of them moved more than a few centimeters. I told her I was in charge and that they would do what I wanted. I controlled them, and it turned out we liked each other's company. I would let her children crawl up my arms and into my hands just to hang out. That's when I realized I was in control of my own dream. 

Spider dreams often end up with me waking up sweating after they have crawled up my body and cocooned me to save for later. But I'm so happy to have finally achieved a successful lucid dream, and I can't wait to see if I will be able to do it again in the future. 

Thank you so much for reading. I know this one was shorter, but I wanted it to have its own time to shine with nothing overshadowing it. 

Have a great rest of your day and stay hydrated, you wonderful beans <3

Just A Little Check-In With Lilly

I had to take my cat to the vets this week because there was blood in her poo. I bought some worming stuff safe for kittens, as the vet thought it could be a parasite in her lower gut. Fingers crossed it clears up because I hate to think my baby is in pain or unwell. In other news, the pond is still clean (cleaned it out recently) and the heron has not been back to attack the fishies (I told this story in one of Luna's streams). We have 70 fish in said pond. I am hoping to do movie reviews and book reviews when I have consumed some new content myself, rather than making content all the time and burning myself out. I don't think it's talked about enough. But do not overdo it if you feel you have a lack of motivation and energy, please take a day off, take some time to look after yourself, eat a great meal, drink some water, or maybe relax with a book under a blanket or watch a movie on the couch. You are important and you matter, don't burn yourself out for a job that is barely paying you enough to survive because lets be honest, most people are on minimum wage and barely surviving some people work two jobs just to provide for their family not taking their own health both physical and mental into consideration. You deserve some me time. Challenge yourself to find an hour a day to do something that's just for you. Not your boss. Not your job. Not your family. Taking care of yourself needs to be a priority. I know this isn't my usual content, but I just felt like this would be nice to share. All the ups and downs, have a great rest of your day, and stay hydrated, you wonderful beans <3

The Type Of Person You Are - Relationship Cheater

Welcome back to my excited ramblings. I have thought about more I want to say, and each week there will be a small update, and if I've watched or read something, I will tell you about that too!

So, I have started recording a podcast with two people I hold very dear in my heart, and so far it's going well. I have made characters for myself and one of the other folks involved to make the visuals easier for the viewers/listeners to know who is talking, and while yes, it may not have been completely necessary, it was a fun activity to do because who doesn't love procrastinating one project with the next. (God knows Rambo does lol) 

I'm very excited to be working on the podcast, as we have spoken about it as a group of three for a whole year, so I finally said, let's just go for it and start. It may not be normal, but I love to stock up on content just in case something happens, so we have decided as a group to stock up on about 20 episodes just in case we can't record specific days. Illness could get in the way, and people go away for holidays, and any family emergency could happen at any point. So I would rather be overprepared than under if you get me. You could view me as the type to overpack on a holiday, but my last holiday, I actually didn't pack enough socks, so I had to pinch my socks off of my boyfriend at the time. 

Which leads us into my actual story-time tale for you. He isn't my boyfriend anymore. I was set to go on yet another big family trip with him when, just a few days before we flew out to America, he went out clubbing and cheated on me with a man. It was also 2 or 3 days before my birthday, so that really hurt me because I knew I was going to spend almost 2 weeks in a foreign country with him and his family. It was too late to back out, and I had paid for my flight and my part of the accommodation. Couldn't lose out on that well-earned money I had spent, y'know?

Regardless, I'm so glad I went because I got to see Florida, and it was a great time. In the back of my mind, I always knew he was going to be reminded of me because his family took so many group pictures, so if he looks back, he will forever be reminded of how he messed it up. 

I pictured marrying this man, I truly loved him, and the day I saw the video of him French kissing this other man, it felt like my heart shattered into a million pieces, but I had to pull myself together and not make him aware that I knew what he did while we were in America. Granted, this happened a long time ago, and I'm fully over it at this point. I still think about it from time to time. I wonder if I did the right thing or not. Literally a day before we were meant to fly out, my mum was saying 'you are really brave for going through with this' and 'you don't have to go if you don't want to'. I just kept reminding myself that there was no point wasting the money I had worked so hard to save up for this trip, that I wasn't going to let my emotions get in the way. 

There was one night where most people had gone to bed and I was left alone chilling in the hot tub with his dad who confronted me because he knew something was off so I told him what the problem was, I didn't want to tell him but I did because he wouldn't let me leave the conversation until I told him the problem. So I told him and asked him to not say anything because I was still figuring out if I could forgive him because I did love him. I cried, his dad hugged me, and he dropped the conversation, but I guess I was on borrowed time from then on. 

My ex couldn't believe I knew the truth, as he found out from his dad the night we got home. So we broke up over the phone, him telling me how sorry he was and that he would never do it again. I vaguely remember the call ended with me saying 'Once a cheater, always a cheater'.

Thank you for reading my rambling. I didn't think the story would be that long, but live and learn, as they say. I am stronger from that experience, but it's not a nice feeling to have. 

There was so much more to the story as well, but I don't wish to bore. 

Have a great rest of your day and stay hydrated you wonderful beans <3

The Speed Limit Is NOT A Recommendation

 Did you know that speed limits aren't just meant to be a suggestion? Did you know that they serve more purposes than just giving law enforcement a reason to pull you over? Did you know that following the speed limit could help save a life? Could be your own, could be a child's, could be anyone's!

While leaving for work today, I was pulling out of my apartment complex, and I triple checked both directions before pulling out onto the main road, and the closest car was at least 50 feet away, so I should have had ample time to get out into the street and get up to speed. ESPECIALLY if they were going the speed limit and were being observant and took the fraction of a second to slow down as a courtesy. INSTEAD. They were going over the 25-mile-per-hour speed limit and nearly T-boned me! Then dared to yell at me like it was my fault that they nearly hit me! 

Speed limits are posted to give you time to react to the world around you, to keep the kids playing in the park safe, and to keep traffic flowing on the highway. Not to mention likely other things. So please, for the love of all things living, GO THE SPEED LIMIT.

Thanks

Productivity and Holding Yourself Accountable

It is important to get things done; most people call it being responsible and being an adult. Some tasks that you do can be regular daily chores like laundry or taking out the trash, other tasks can be things like making thumbnails for content online, leisurely items like hanging out with loved ones or catching up on shows; it is all productivity.

I posted recently about list making and if it actually works, but sometimes making the list isn't the only thing you need to do. Sometimes you need to find somebody to help hold you accountable. Preferably somebody who is also trying to get things done, so that you aren't envious of the fun they are having. 
This can prove very beneficial for keeping you on track to keep marking off them items on your list. Of course, at some point, you are going to have completed so much that you think it is time to take a break, and that is also okay. 

Taking breaks is going to help keep you refreshed and help you keep up your energy to get more items done. 

I like to do a rotation of one to two hours of productivity and then 15 to 30 minutes of relaxation.

Eventually, you will work through enough of your to-do list that you will feel like you got something done with your day. 

Or, y'know, you could just keep letting your to-do list build up.

Listie Lists - Helpful or Hurtful?

How do you stay focused on getting stuff done throughout the day? How do you keep track of everything that needs to be done?

Are you the kind of person who just knows what needs to get done and does it immediately without any side quests enabled? Or are you the type of person who needs to pace themselves and take a break between different excursions?

Honestly, I tend to derail super easily, and regardless of whether I have a list made up or not, if I am not in the mood to be productive, then nothing is going to get done! But making a list to begin with can spark that little bit of motivation to get things done that I need in my day. And so, because of this, I am very much a list person. 

Growing up, we had a chore chart that listed all of the different tasks we needed to get done throughout the day, but also throughout the week. This helped my mom to make sure we were all getting things done around the house but it also helped me to know if others had completed something, if I was going to be expected to do something else, and how much I had to get done before I would be allowed to do fun things like have a friend over.

Utilizing lists still remains a part of my life. Grocery lists, chore lists, game lists, book lists. They help me know what I have and have not done or gotten. 

Although, honestly, I recently made a list of things to do for a friend that couldn't figure out what she needed to focus on and I saw how little that list was compared to the things that I needed to get done on my own lists and it made mine feel so much larger than it use to before ....

Sometimes I wish I could wave a magic wand and just poof my list complete.

A New Author Has Entered The Chat - Welcoming Lilly

Hello! Thank you for checking out my first blog post! 

I'm so excited to join this team with amazing people. 

I'd like to introduce myself to those who don't know me. I am Lilly, and I am a full-time content creator from the UK. I love playing games, my top few are Dead by Daylight, Fortnite, and Minecraft. I edit all my thumbnails and videos myself for social media, and I enjoy writing. I did want to be an author at one point, but following my heart with going with the gaming stuff just seemed like the best move. Who knows, I may have a book or two out in the future. At this current moment in time, I have half written two books. I like to read, though I don't know my favourite genre, I enjoy quite a large range of genres. Last year, I was challenging myself to read one book every month, but I failed due to a lot going on in my life. The books I read last year were Stitch Head, The Spider's Lair, The Pirates Eye, and The Ghost of Groteskew, all by Guy Bass, additionally, James and the Giant Peach and The Twits by Roald Dahl, Girl Missing by Tess Gerritsen and a short book called How to Tame Your Cat by Sam Heart. 

As previously mentioned, I had a lot going on in my life last year. I moved house and started taking care of my nan because she has dementia. I even wrote half a book about taking care of her and the funny things she says. But caring for someone who has dementia is not easy, yes, there are good moments, but there are also bad moments. Recently, she has become bed-bound and is eating and drinking less and less, so it is worrying, but there isn't too much we can do about that. 

Thank you again for reading my first post. I'm very excited to do more of these. Have a great rest of your day 

P.S. My favourite animals include Pandas, Bats, and Cats.

A Brief Trip Down Memory Lane - New Author Luna

    Dear Reader,   

  Well hello! I don't exactly know what to say here, or how to get the words on paper right; but I figured my thoughts aught to go somewhere, right? I also figured a good place to start with all my thoughts would be to give the best most entertaining and exciting synopsis on my life so far. I might as well start now, the longer I procrastinate the more I'll have to write about. 

    I grew up with my mom and dad, my older sister (K), and my little sister ($). We lived on a street where everyone knew everyone, and no one Karen'd there way onto hit lists. Well technically i only lived on that street until $ was out of a crib, then we needed more space so we swapped houses with my dads mom and are to this day living in his childhood house. Despite moving away from living in the duplex with MomMom in the four bedroom house next door, most of my childhood was still spent on that street. 

    I learned so much about so many people on that street, every house had a friend of the family living there, Mrs. L down in the brown house would always make us soup, K.C.'s parents hated mine but they still let me use their trampoline, and the house with all the animal figurines always had wild animals in the back yard. A weekend at MomMom's house was never boring. The best part about an "everybody known everybody" neighborhood was that everyone shared what they had. The neighbors across the street always had a fully stocked cookie jar on their porch with a ceramic lid on it to keep out the bugs, two doors up the street had so many books I was genuinely convinced as a kid that it was the local library, and down at the end of the street, right by the cul-de-sac, an old man let us draw on his massive 4 car driveway with chalk paint he'd mix for us. 

    All of our backyards were connected, you could walk from one end of the street to the other behind everyone's houses and only run into one fenced in yard, and that was only because he had chickens. We would drive our kiddie motorbikes and motorized cars around the yards for hours. Fallen trees became the planks of pirate ships, the holes from the roots would be portals to other dimensions (they were always bad dimensions as told by our parents so we wouldn't try climbing down into them). That street was a little over-imaginative kids DREAM. 

    When we moved from that street to my dad's childhood house, our Nana moved in where we were, which only made that street better in my opinion. She taught me how to use a needle and thread, and paid me 25 cents a jar to sort her buttons for her. Nana had a garden in her back yard, it had something tasty growing no matter the season; except winter where everything moved into the greenhouse with the fish tank. in spring we'd go out and pick the strawberries and blueberries she'd grow and eat them right off the vine. My sisters always made fun of her for worrying too much, and never really got along with her, but I adored every second i got to spend with her. Even now I love seeing her, though it's much less often.

    If I kept going about my childhood I'd be here for chapters, so for your sake I'll wrap it up. I truly believe that my childhood shaped me as a person. For better or worse I came out the way I did because of the people I was surrounded by. I love my family, especially my grandmothers. Laying awake some nights I let my mind drift back to the time I spent on that street and how grateful I am to have a village like that to raise me. I will probably tell more stories from that street in future posts, but for now I gotta pay attention to work.

                                                                                                                        ~Luna

Getting To Affiliate - It's Different For Everyone

There are many different paths you can take in life, and a lot of those paths can lead to the same goal. That is because there is no one correct way to go about anything. Sometimes different paths can be found because you have different capabilities, sometimes it's a matter of what connections you have, sometimes it's that the path was already forged before you started on your journey.

When I was working on hitting affiliate on Twitch, I had my own alternate motives; I was helping a friend. It eventually became I continued streaming because I enjoyed it and I enjoyed the community connections, and I wanted to have a way to relieve stress but by that point I had already gotten affiliate due to pushing my way into other communities and making connections with folks who helped to push me and keep my numbers up. Because of that community, I try my best, every chance I can, to help push others to get to that point. Where they take it after that is completely up to them, but I can help at least get them started.

Whether this is the best means of achieving something like affiliate status on Twitch or monetization status on YouTube, is still up for debate but at least it gets rid of the stress of when will you make that status if at all.

There are some folks out there who streamed for months and years on end before finally getting that status, and only because they happened to be playing a game that brought in somebody bigger with the numbers to help push them there.

Over time, your drive can diminish, and that's unfortunate because that drive is what should be helping to push you into triumph rather than into a wall of defeat.

But maybe I am wrong

May the Fourth Be With You

 Incase you forgot, today is the stat of Star Wars week!

It's time to let your geek fly freely and embrace all thing galactic in the empire! 

And the best part? This year, Disney+ is running a Star Wars marathon on their platform! No need to decide which movie to watch and no worrying about switching the disk out. Just a need to worry about if you have enough snacks and when the best time to break for potty time is.

What's your favorite non-main Star Wars character?

Recruiting New Faces

 Content creation is not something you need to do on your own. It's a lot more fun with friends, and it's a lot easier to maintain with others on your team.

With others, you can edit your videos, you can get second opinions on graphics, and you can get help typing daily journal entries that you struggle to put out. 😅

Thankfully, as you keep making content, you come across a lot of faces, and while they may not all stick around for a long time, the ones who stick around for at least a while to help alleviate the stress are wonderful.

Look out for new faces coming in the future, they may be faces you will come to love and rely on just like mine <3

April Fools

Jokes can be good, jokes can be bad.
Don't do something you will regret tomorrow.

Stay lighthearted and innocent with your jokes. Something like rearranging the items on your coworker's desk. A woopie cushion under a pillow. A fake mouse under a blanket.

The second you try to be funny with fake promises like game DLCs or announcements like marriages/divorces or promotions or babies; you risk breaking hearts and ruining the mental states of others.

If you would be highly displeased if somebody did it to you, do not do it to anyone else.

Here are some of the good jokes you could play on the people in your life;

1. Hide two things, but tell them you hid three things

2. Replace your family photos with photos of somebody else

3. Text them a GIF of the "typing" dots

4. Put some plastic on the top of their shampoo bottle, then screw the top back on

5. Put sugar in their salt shaker

6. Put balloons in their office or bedroom

7. Tape something to the bottom of their computer mouse, rendering it temporarily unusable

8. Place a fake snake in their belongings

9. Hide behind a door and scare them

10. Swap their hand sanitizer with glue