Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!
Hello! Shwmae!
-
Movie Review: American Carnage (2022)
American Carnage was
released in 2022 – which makes the fact that it’s so painfully relevant to
Trump’s second (interminable) term in office that much more impressive. This one
had my jaw on the floor the first time we watched it.And I’ve watched it twice since then!
The movie takes a surprisingly amusing swing at the
concept of race and the other. It calls out social injustice so casually that
even a run-of-the-mill white girl like me can’t help but imagine what BIPOC
folks face every. Fucking. Day.How they haven’t murdered us all in our beds at this
point is beyond me. Ten minutes into American Carnage and I was
grumbling about “fucking white people!”
It might sound like this is a movie that’s all about
how awful white Americans can be to anyone who’s, you know, not (and it
totally is) but it’s also about rebellion and resilience and coming together to
win against overwhelming odds.
If we ever needed that particular message, it’s now.
So… what makes American Carnage so relevant? In
it, the governor issues an executive order that sees the children of immigrants
rounded up en masse in a disgusting PR stunt. (Sound familiar?) It’s interesting
to note here that JP (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) is a druggie who works at a
fast-food joint, while his little sister, Lily (Yumarie Morales) is on her way
to an Ivy League school and they’re both detained.Your talents, your intelligence, your prospects… none
of that matters. Only the color of your skin matters.Sound. Fucking. Familiar?
They do such a good job of recreating the confusion of
light, movement, and noise during a raid that it gave me a panic attack the
first time. You don’t want to ever have to imagine what a raid is like, right? American
Carnage is here to remind you that at least 40% of the population is facing
that horrible, looming threat every day.I just want to say it again for anyone who wasn’t
paying attention: a horror movie used racially motivated raids as a plot tool years
before Trump’s second term brought them to our streets.Yeah.
Kinda hits, huh?
(If your answer is no, why don’t you go ahead and
GTFO?)American Carnage deals with
heavy topics like racism, bigotry, capitalism, and aging but does so through
a lens of irreverent humor that keeps the movie from becoming… you know, as
depressing as real life. Sure, it should piss you off and make you think more
critically about the world… but you should have fun doing it.One of the things I love about American Carnage
is that it’s unapologetically bilingual, a growing trend in television and cinema
that I am 100% behind. I mentioned that I’ve seen it several times and that’s
exactly how I recommend watching it. You can appreciate its snark and slick,
well-cut cinematography in one watch; you can only appreciate how masterful its
foreshadowing is with subsequent viewings.Like… the kind of foreshadowing that’d have
English Lit professors salivating.Though the movie impressed me from start to finish
(again and again,) there’s one little thing that still bugs me. The twitching
and jerking from the “elderly” patients is clearly included for jump scares and
to throw you off the scent of what was really going on. (Are they zombies? Demons?)
The explanation for it comes across as a little weak and, honestly, the movie
would work just fine without it.American Carnage takes on
aging with the same humor that it approaches race, with an unavoidable tinge of
sadness. More than half of us won’t face the fear of being snatched by ICE on
our walks home – but we’ll all face the indignity of getting old.If we’re lucky.
I could talk about American Carnage for hours.
(It probably feels like I already have. Lol.) Instead, I’ll just implore you to
watch it and, when you do, cast your mind back to the world we were enjoying in
2022 when it came out so you can appreciate how cheerfully ominous American
Carnage really is.Then watch it again and appreciate all the little things
you missed the first time around.Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5 stars)
-
Movie Review: Return to Silent Hill (2026)
It’s
impossible to go into a movie like Return to Silent Hill (2026) without
certain expectations. That’s the nature of adaptations. This one faced
additional challenges in that it didn’t just have to compete with the game
franchise (’90’s graphics? Shouldn’t be too hard, right?) it also had to
compete with 2006 adaptation.Which,
let’s be honest, is a lot to live up to!ChristopheGans KILLED it. The soundtrack, the atmosphere, the casting, the baddies… it
was all spot-on.So why
even attempt a reboot?Sadly, I’m
still asking myself that question.We went to see Return to Silent Hill opening night and, as we were
leaving the cinema, Jay said he thought it was a tale
of three parts and I can’t beat that description. It started strong. (Jay counted
three jumps in the first third, which is how he judges whether a horror movie
is good or not: how often it frightens me.)The
beginning was intriguing. It was eerie, it was atmospheric, it was gory. Better
than any of that, though, was the way it put you right in the middle of the
action. Masterful use of angles, focus, and depth of field made it feel like
you were in the game. The sirens went off, the monsters came out, and…Wait. What the
hell?That was
the second part of the movie, just wondering what the fuck was happening. It
got weird. Not curious weird, just disjointed and confusing weird.Which is
better than the final part.Fuck this
shit.The ending
succeeded in actually making me angry. With such a good start, and enduring the
weirdness of the middle, I was expecting a much better payoff.We
deserved a much better payoff.What we
got was lazy writing and the most obvious, cliched, saccharine “resolution.” I kept waiting
for the nasty twist that would make it all better……yeah, still
waiting.*sigh*
I don’t
understand how a movie that did so much right could get it all so wrong. To
start strong, to have the effects and soundtrack, to queue up what should have
been the best reboot since 2004’s Dawn of the Dead – only to get confused about
what it was supposed to be doing and throw in the towel with an ending a
freaking AI bot could have bettered. (Nah, scratch that. It’s exactly the kind of BS ending an AI bot would have come up with.)Remember
when you were supposed to write a paper for school and you were kind of excited and threw yourself into it, only to get distracted and forget about it until the night before
it was due so you had to scribble some crap and hope the teacher would give you
credit for finishing it? (No? Just my late-diagnosed AuDHD ass? Lol.) Well, that’s what Return
to Silent Hill felt like.What
annoyed me more than the lackluster ending, though, was the fact that this
version didn’t do anything to explain… well… anything. It either assumed
you played the game (or saw the 2006 adaptation) or just didn’t care why elements vital to the game were even there.
I should
point out a couple of things here that have an effect on my opinion. One, I’m a casual
player. I have a general knowledge of what should be happening, but I’m not in
a position to nitpick over minor details. Two, I realize that the Silent Hill
franchise is notorious for multiple endings so, technically, they could get
away with just about any ending.(Even
alien invasion. Lol.)Doesn’t
mean I have to like it.And
thirdly, I’m well aware that Return to Silent Hill is (arguably) more
faithful to the actual plot of the games than the 2006 adaptation. In
capturing the franchise’s essence, however, it is far less so.For me? Return
to Silent Hill was a total disappointment. Not poorly made, as such, because
the audiovisuals were solid, but certainly poorly written. A good adaptation
should be enjoyable for the die-hard fans, the casual fans, and people who’ve
never switched on a PlayStation in their lives.I hear
those kinda freaks do actually exist. *gasp*Return
to Silent Hill doesn’t
offer much for people who aren’t already fans and, if you ask me, doesn’t offer all that much for those of us who are.Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ (3/5 stars)
-
Book Review: Dastardly Damsels by Suzie Lockhart (editor)
I will always go for a horror anthology written exclusively by women. Why? *sigh*
I had the honor(?) of reading submissions to an extreme horror publication some time ago and I cannot begin to tell you how jaded, disappointed, and downright freaking disgusted the experience left me.I learned during my time as a reader that modern man’s idea of horror is nothing more than every horrible thing that can be done to women. Ninety percent of the submissions I read were rape fantasies, which made me recoil so hard from the genre that I couldn’t bring myself to write or read horror for a long time.But then I had the opportunity to read for a women-in-horror competition and I realised my disillusionment wasn’t with the genre, it was with the men. I think I kinda of assumed horror belonged to men – because that’s what they’d have us believe. Approaching horror through a strictly female gaze renewed my love for the genre and, better, validated my own experiences (in horror and without.)
Dastardly Damsels (2024) from Crystal Lake Publishing recognizes the need to carve out a place in horror exclusively for women. Better, it gives them room within that place to explore their darker sides. A place to embrace their inner baddies.And THATS the horror I’ve been yearning for.As with any anthology, I’d be doing the book a disservice if I offered an overall rating without looking at each individual story. So let’s do that.“Thy Neighbor” by Nancy Holder (5/5) challenges expectations and offers an amusingly satisfying twist.“Moth Girl” by Katie Young (4/5) is, frankly, disturbing as fuck, creating an image that’s as haunting as it is warped.“Caught Out” by Rose Blackthorne (3/5) is an unexpected werewolf tale that falls a little short at the end.“Unclean Break” by L. E. Daniels (2/5) is… *sigh* a poem. You know me and my prejudice against including both poetry and fiction in the same antho.“Lucille Sings the Blues” by H. R. Boldwood (4/5) offers a “What the…?” that becomes an “Oh, clever!”“She” by Gerri Leen (5/5) is the sapphic story of a mad scientist that blurs the line between lover and creator.“Matilda’s Mourning” by Donna J. W. Munro (4/5) offers twisted logic and a desire for happiness that feels off kilter and uncertain.“The Hollow Tree” by Nemma Wollenfang (4/5) gives victims their revenge – and it’s satisfyingly nasty.“Turn Around, Bright Eyes” by Rie Sheridan Rose (3/5) offers a secret glimpse into the lives of goddesses while exposing gods’ truths.“The Roxy Special” by Rowan Hill (2/5) normalises violence against women in a way that doesn’t quite sit with the rest of the book.“Return Policy” by Claire Davon (2/5) is a stumbling block for me because I can’t make head nor tail of it.“Dark Moon Devoted” by Jezzy Wolfe(4/5) is a reminder that you should never call on Hekate unless you mean it.“A Veil Of Darkness In Tower Nigh” by Mary Genevieve Fortier (4/5) is a poem that actually works because it tells a story.Every anthology has one, and “In Dire Straits” by Alisha Rath (1/5) is mine: the story I HATE. It’s far too long, too judgemental, and awfully woman-hating for a collection of this nature.“Revenge Is…” by Yvonne Mason (3/5) is less dastardly and more domestic, dealing with the concepts of abuse and freedom.“Too Close To The Edge” by Rosalind Pace (3/5) is another tale of a victim getting her revenge.“Excisor” by Rue Carney (5/5) is Fae as fuck and one that I want more of.“Full Moon Mother” by Kay Leslie Reeves (4/5) is another poem. It wins points for being about werewolves but loses them for being unresolved.“Unafraid” by Suzanne Reynolds-Alpert (4/5) is a warning to be careful what you wish for.“Silver Strands” by Patricia Miller (5/5) is a gloriously strange little fairytale of monsters trapped in stitches.“Tell Me About Your Fourth Wife” by Alex T. Singer (5/5) is truly dastardly and earns a “Yas! Get it, gurl!” from me.“The Gladiatrix” by Aelth Faye (5/5) surprises by being a visceral blend of history and sci-fi.“The Trial of Ms. White” by Nora B. Peevy (3/5) is a modern fairytale mashup that gets kind of messy.“The Woman In The Woods” by Sarah Jane Huntington (5/5) is pure life goals. If I’m not befriending a family of bigfoots in my old age, what is it all for?“Mergers and Acquisitions” by Elaine Pascale (4/5) approaches business in a unique (and surprisingly disturbing) way.“I Won’t Die Alone” by Naching T. Kassa (4/5) asks whether death is chasing us – or if we’re chasing death.“Red Lipstick” by Valerie B. Williams (5/5) is a simple but effective take on the old abusive spouse story.“Farm Wife” by Nancy Kilpatrick (4/5) reminds us that women just get on with it ’cause we’ve got shit to do!“The God of Sea And Land” by Christina Sng (5/5) is another poem but wins me over by virtue of telling a good story.“Endra – From Memory” by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (3/5) attempts to be exotic, but ends up feeling dull.“The Final Girl” by Mia Dalia (3/5) looks at what becomes of the final girl when the killer’s story ends but hers continues.“Death Warmed Over” is by Rachel Caine (4/5) – quite a big name for an indie publisher to land in an antho. Her story is good, but not so dastardly.I appreciate what Dastardly Damsels does for women in horror – but it’s frustratingly heavy on female victims and light on proper female villains. Though it’s an enjoyable anthology, it could be a lot more dastardly.Dastardly Damsels offers exactly what women who love horror need, but falls just short of actually delivering it. The standout stories are the ones with female villains, rather than just victims getting their own back. Horror is full of male killers who are just… bad. Why do women always need to justify their badness? If men can be bad for the sake of being bad, so can we. Let us.Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ (3/5 stars) -
New Year Spell Jar (2026)
One of my favourite witchy activities to welcome the new year is to make a spell jar. They’re simple but powerful and you probably already have what you need to complete one already.
The ingredients are basic but can be personalized according to taste and need. Let me share my 2026 New Year Spell Jar with you.
Ingredients:
- a jar with a lid
- a candle or wax to seal the deal (I chose yellow for an extra boost of creativity. If you’re unsure, use white.)
- coins for prosperity (I used coins from my jar of lucky pennies.)
- salt for protection & eggshells or black pepper to banish negativity
- herbs
- gemstones
- paper with your intention written on it (Be specific. Be clear. Be honest.)
Start by adding salt with either black pepper or eggshells as a base at the bottom of your jar, then simply build by adding your ingredients. Like I said, simple.
As you add each item, be sure to name it and specify its purpose. Clarity is important if you want your spell to succeed. You can find generic herb suggestions for a New Year Spell Jar anywhere on Insta or Pinterest, but I’ll give you an idea of some of the herbs & gems I used for mine.Herbs:- eucalyptus to clear mental fog
- caraway for memory
- thyme for good sleep
- star anise to attract good luck
- chamomile and mint for prosperity
- bay leaves to aid manifestation
Gemstones:- amber to relieve pain
- black tourmaline to balance mood
- bloodstone for creativity
- mookaite for adventure
- rhodonite for personal growth
- sodalite to fight stress
You can see how much I’ve personalized my spell jar to fit my needs. It’s very easy to do. The hard part is figuring out what you need to focus on in the coming year!
I keep my jar through the year, “feeding” it occasionally to keep the magick working. That just means when I’m feeling particularly witchy or feel like my energy matches the energy of my spell jar, I light a candle on top of the jar and reaffirm my intentions.
If you don’t feel comfortable dismantling your jar when you’re finished, that’s okay. You can always bury it instead. The great thing about spell jars, though, is how handy they are for witches on a tighter budget. Just be sure to give thanks when you break the wax seal, cleanse any gems you intend to reuse, give the jar a good scrub, and cleanse the jar with sage before you use it for anything else, especially if you’ve kept it all year, like I do. -
Book Review: Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga by Lindy Ryan (editor)
You might think that I first discovered Baba Yaga
through my lifelong study of witchcraft and the occult. You would, of course,
be wrong.Because I wasn’t just a baby witch in school.
I was also (and remain) an incurable geek.
One of my favorite DOS-based games growing up was Sierra’s
Quest For Glory (aka: So You Want To Be A Hero.) In it, you can play
as a Fighter, a Magic User, or a Thief on your quest to become a hero. (No
points for guessing which I always chose!)One of the would-be hero’s quests takes him to the
foot (feet) of Baba Yaga’s house where he, hopefully, has learned to say “hut
of brown now sit down” to gain access and meet the old witch. And… for many
years, that was it. That quest was all I knew (or, honestly, cared) about Baba
Yaga.My interest grew as I aged and, like many women at my stage of life, felt a pull to her dark mythos. Toward her brutal justice. Her often-cruel
kindness. The more I’ve experienced of the world, of life, the more intrigued
I’ve become by the mercurial old witch.No longer a whimsical character from a game, I can see
Baba Yaga for what she is: The fearsome embodiment of feminine knowledge. The too-often
hidden truth of women’s power over life.And death.
I’m hardly alone in my fascination.
In 2022, editor Lindy Ryan brought together some of
the best women in horror (sadly, not me hah) to pay tribute in an anthology
titled Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga. Many of the names
included are familiar, some are friends, and still others are some of my favourites.
Each author included brings her unique vision, her experience, her deepest
fears – and darkest desires – together to create an engaging anthology
dedicated to the fearsome witch of Slavic lore.
As I always say with anthologies, not every story is
going to resonate with every reader – but the best ones have something for
everyone. Personally, for example, I prefer anthologies that don’t mix poetry
and fiction (as this one does.) For me, it’s kind of like finding a Skittle in
a bowl of M&Ms: each yummy on their own, but no fun to chomp on together.I wanted to go ahead and get one of my biggest
problems with Into the Forest out of the way so I could focus on some of
the excellent contributions. Of which there are many.The nature of anthologies makes it hard to balance vision
and quality. While the stories in Into the Forest feel clumped together
awkwardly in terms of time and place, they certainly don’t suffer from any lack
of vision or quality! It’s rare to find so many stories in a collection from
different authors that earn solid 5/5 ratings, but Into the Forest ladles
them up liberally from its cauldron.Let’s talk about them:
“Dinner Plans with Baba Yaga” by
Stephanie M Wytovich (3/5) is evocative (but is also victim of my prejudice
against poems in fiction anthologies.)“Last Tour Into the Hungering Moonlight” by
Gwendolyn Kiste (5/5) is wonderfully irreverent. Droll. It expresses that
yearning for the thing you can’t quite name and is heavy with silent feminine
despair.“The Story of a House” by Yi
Izzy Yu (5/5) is exactly that: the story of Baba’s chicken-footed house
that is both crueler and more heartbreaking than you expect.“Of Moonlight and Moss” by Sara
Tantlinger (3/5) brings us queer high fantasy about reclaiming female power
that probably gets too low a rating because I’ve not been connecting with the
genre lately.“Wormwood” by
Lindz McLeod (5/5) is a brief glimpse of Baba Yaga’s benevolence, with an
emphasis on mirrors that act as reminders that people are simply mirrors of the
societies in which they live.“Mama Yaga” by
Christina Sing (5/5) is an unexpectedly humorous Hansel & Gretel
crossover.“Flood Zone” by Donna
Lynch (2/5) is deep but dreary. It feels like it connects less with the
theme than others.“The Peddler’s Promise” by Catherine
McCarthy (4/5) is harder read because it unapologetically refuses to be
more accessible – but is enjoyable for the same reason.“The Space Between the Trees” by
Jo Kaplan (5/5) is an unsettling look at the relationship between mother
and daughter that’s frighteningly universal.“Sugar and Spice and the Old Witch’s Price”
by Lisa Quigley (5/5) is more modern, more relatable, than many others.
It addresses the hopeless rut of motherhood and is one of my absolute favorites
because of how perfectly nasty it is.“Birds of a Feather” by Monique
Snyman (3/5) reminds us that the real appeal of Baba Yaga is that her
stories are all about choices. Even though I didn’t really connect with the
character, I’d love to read more stories about Baba Yaga as an immigrant in
today’s society.“Water Like Glass” by Carina
Bissett (3/5) is a sapphic tale of life & death & Rebirth that, unfortunately,
feels quite heavy.“Herald the Knight” by Mercedes
M. Yardley (4/5) becomes a little muddled at the end but is so captivating
that I’d love to read more.“All Bitterness Burned Away”
by Jill Baguchinsky (5/5) is another Hansel and Gretel crossover. Short
and sweet(ish.)“A Trail of Feathers, A Trail of Blood”
by Stephanie M. Wytovich (5/5) leaves you feeling a little confused
about what actually happens at the end but uses such powerful imagery that you really
feel the urgency and despair that drive the story there.“Baba Yaga Learns to Shave, Gets Her Period, Then
Grows into Her Own” by Jess Hagemann (2/5) struck me as a
half-formed idea. It’s too… distant for me to really get – but it has been
an awfully long time since I was a teenager!“Fair Trade” by Jacqueline
West (5/5) brings a smile to your face with a surprisingly satisfying
ending.“Stork Bites” by Ev
Knight (2/5) is short and, frankly, a bit forced. Although it has
entertaining moments, it’s too disjointed to really get into.“Chicken Foot” by Octavia
Cade (3/5) is somber. It reeks of defeat and disappointment and feels…
incomplete.“Where the Horizon Meets the Sky”
by R.J. Joseph (1/5) is the only story I actually dislike. It’s mundane
and obvious, with awkward dialogue and a Baba that’s so poorly developed she’s
unrecognizable.“Maw Maw Yaga and the Hunter”
by Alexandrea Weis (2/5) is a clever tale of nature’s revenge that would
work better if the setting were better developed.“Baba Yaga in Repose” by Heather
Miller (4/5) is somber. It’s sad – but not hopeless. This is the story the
anthology should have ended on.“Shadow and Branch, Ghost Fruit Among the Lullabies”
by Saba Sayed Razvi (4/5) isn’t a story so much as an invocation that
ends too soon.Into the Forest will,
naturally, appeal more to women. It is, after all, a women-in-horror anthology,
written by women, about women, for women. That being said, I feel like there
are a whole lot of men out there who could benefit from reading this book.Or, failing that, a chance encounter with an old woman
in the woods…Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5 stars)
-
Game Review: The Park (2015)
Did you take advantage of XBox’s winter sale on games? I did!
My gaming style is… well, kinda like the rest of my style: eclectic, leaning toward the dark, and easily distracted.Glitter goth granny-core at its best!So, you can probably already guess that I downloaded several games to try and that I’ll take my dear, sweet time getting around to them. I can’t neglect my crosswords, after all! 😉I started with a first-person game from 2015 called The Park. It won points just for being a first-person horror game. I always prefer those. Bonus points for having sensible controls – although I did have to turn the sensitivity WAY down.You start as a widowed mother, Lorraine, who enters Atlantic Island Park, chasing after her wayward son. No matter how many times you tell Callum to stop, to come back, he won’t listen. That doesn’t stop you from shouting at him as you go along, though. Mostly because hollering at the little brat is literally the only tool as your disposal.And… thanks for that little reminder of why I am child-free. *shudder*The Park is a psychological horror video game – with heavy emphasis on the video part. You wander around the park, hopping on rides and collecting clues as to what shut the now-abandoned park down. With as little opportunity as there is to actually do anything, you might as well be a viewer, rather than a player.It isn’t an unpleasant experience, to be fair. The graphics are neat and developers did a good job creating atmosphere. There are even a few clever jumps along the way – though there’s an awful lot of waiting around to get to them.Bearing in mind that I took my time exploring (and that I have the attention span of a gnat,) it took me about two hours to finish The Park. A more determined gamer could easily do it in about an hour, which makes me glad I waited to buy it on sale!The biggest problem isn’t the lack of opportunities to go off-script in this narrative-driven game; it’s the fact that it only took a couple of minutes to work out what was happening and what the likely outcome would be. The rest of the time was spent confirming what I already knew. By the time I made it to the big reveal, it was a relief to have it over and that left me feeling… blegh.There were glimmers of what The Park could have been in its creepy amusement park settings and sudden jump-scares, but the game got so bogged down in storytelling (and let down by lack of actual gameplay,) that it didn’t even muster a dim glow.Rating: 🎮🎮🎮 (3/5)Recommend? No.Play Again? No. -
NOW That’s What I Call A Year!
2025 was a heavy year in a lot of ways – and amazing in a lot of others.
It’s hard to talk about last year without mentioning our queen, Blodwyn, who we lost on January 2nd, 2025. She fought hard that last year, bless her heart. It was obvious that things were going downhill for a long time – her mobility issues and incontinence were unavoidable signs – but she kept us laughing, right to the end.
Her organs started to fail that last day, leaving us with the choice no pet owner ever wants to have to make. Luckily for us, the PDSA were there for us, every step of the way. They let us take her home one last time to say goodbye to the others and, ooh boy, was THAT hard. Dylan threw up, Khaaaan cried, and Lily just pressed herself to Blod’s side like she couldn’t get close enough. We showed her the yard one last time, promised to bring her home, and made our way back to the animal hospital.
Blod, being Blod, wasn’t going on anyone else’s terms. After the vet explained what she was doing and what would happen next, we said our goodbyes and just held on. And…
Blodwyn started snoring.
Yup, SNORING.
Girl was having the best sleep of her life.
The vet was MORTIFIED, but we couldn’t stop laughing because it was the most Blodwyn thing Blodwyn had ever done. She gave us the holidays. She gave us New Year. And she gave us one last laugh.
That’s why she’ll always be our Queenie.
As promised, Blod’s ashes are here, with Sweep’s, waiting for Dylan to join them. (Hopefully a LONG time from now.)
Boy, did that girl leave a hole in our lives. We struggled through the next few months before coming to the conclusion that we just had to get a puppy to break the silence.
Turns out…
It took TWO puppies to fill the void Blod left.
We called it our little compromise: Jay wanted a short-haired, I wanted a wire-haired.
We got both.
It was stupid. It was expensive.
It was the best fucking idea ever.
Helga and Von are thick as thieves (and twice as devious.) They’re growing up together as sisters & best friends, which is amazing to watch.
Not to mention exhausting. So, so exhausting. 🤣
Lily went from being the puppy to be the ever-watchful, (mostly) patient nanny figure and she OWNED it – which is saying something, considering the absolute mayhem the Twins of Evil unleashed on our lives. Khaaaan was instantly in love with both of them, of course, while Dylan… took some coming around.
He’s the walking embodiment of “I’m too old for this shit,” that dog.
I kept joking that five dachshunds couldn’t be that different from four – but the joke was on me! Lol. It’s so, so much more overwhelming. 90% of the time, I freaking love it. (We won’t talk about Helga’s first season. Yikes.) The other 10%…
Well, I am going grey!
So… that’s our family now: Me, Jay, Dylan, Khaaaan, Lily, Helga, and Von.
Wow.
Hopefully, we’ll get to do another photoshoot to commemorate our crazy little family while Dylan is still with us. At 15 and 10, those boys of ours are getting on.
Guess we all are…
Which leads me to the other thing that dominated our year.
There were some pretty heavy health diagnoses in 2025. Multiple Sclerosis has certainly taken its toll but, although I need a stick all the time and a walker sometimes (and a whole lotta naps in between,) I’m, as the man says, still standing.
(Wearing a hearing full-time, but standing. Just… face me, so I can see what you’re saying!)
Here’s hoping it stays that way a good, long time! In the meantime, I have to wait until my yearly MRI to find out if the infusion I’m getting (that makes me immunosuppressed and kept me ill for a good part of the year) is helping. Last year’s MRI showed that the lesions had spread into my spine, which isn’t great, but is totally expected with PPMS. (Or, as a friend called it, “the super sucky turbo version.”)
Of course, that MRI also showed Degenerative Disc Disease, which explains why my neck ALWAYS hurts and is another thing to deal with. *eyeroll*
Jay says when I eventually die, someone will shout, “House!” because I’ll finally have a full card of diseases. *sigh* He’s not that wrong… the list does seem to keep getting longer!
I’m learning to manage my AuDHD diagnosis, which is… *sigh* I’m still trying to understand what’s Autism, what’s ADHD, what’s Borderline Personality Disorder, and what’s just me. Who knows if I’ll ever figure it out? Luckily, I have an amazing support network to help me through it.
Thank the gods for the NHS! I can’t believe we almost ended up going back to America to live. *shudder* What a horrible thing THAT would have been!
For so, so many reasons.
But I’m not giving Wussolini any space here. Fuck him.
It takes more planning and…
(Hah. If you want an example of how chaotic my life is now, I just had to launch my laptop across the sofa to try and grab a dog before they vomited all over a blanket. I did not. Eww. Lol.)
Anyway. It takes more planning and a lot more rest for us to get out and about these days. We have my disabilities and Jay’s disabilities and five dogs to work around, after all.
That in mind, we didn’t get to visit most of the restaurants we wanted to try last year, but we did get to some great shows. (Even though we did miss out on some concerts and some conventions because LIFE.) The highlight of the year (for me, at least) was (of course) the Twenty One Pilots concert in Birmingham.
*minor fangirl moment*
Was 2025 a good year? Was it a bad one? I don’t really know how to measure that anymore. We made good memories – but bad ones right alongside them. There were ups and downs and fears and laughter and I guess that’s just the way these things go. Especially now.
All I do know is that 2025 was one helluva year and, foolish or not, I’m just about ready to face 2026 and see what it has in store for us.
Tomorrow, obviously. You can’t start these things on a Sunday. 😉
-
Game Review: Home Sweet Home (2017)
I couldn’t
let October pass without trying out at least one horror game and, since I’d
picked up Home Sweet Home on sale earlier in the year, it was the obvious
choice. How was it? Well, I don’t wanna go all middle school report card or
anything, but Home Sweet Home did NOT live up to its potential.(Yikes.
Flashback. Lol.)To be fair
to Home Sweet Home, I was actually pretty stoked about the game when I first
started playing it. The graphics are average (and better than I was expecting
for a game I paid less than a fiver for.) It’s dark without being too dark, which is a common problem with horror games (and, let’s be honest, horror
movies) these days. There are frequent changes in scenery as the story moves from one
chapter to the next, so you’re always on your toes, wondering what comes next.
At first, anyway –
but we’ll come back to that.
Home Sweet
Home really excels at creating tension, with subtle atmosphere and creeping
monsters that made me jump out of my skin on more than one occasion!Creeping,
by the way, is the word of the game.Be
prepared for stealth, stealth, and more stealth when you sit down to play Home
Sweet Home. I’m more of a charge-in-swinging kinda player so I really struggled
with that aspect of the game. It’s ALL creeping and hiding and waiting patiently
in lockers while a creepy ghost hovers outside, waiting for you to screw up.Which you probably will. A lot. It’s a toughie.
Speaking
of creepy ghosts… the baddies are where Home Sweet Home starts to fall flat.
There are only three villains to face: the ghost of a female student with a boxcutter
(whose click-click-click will haunt my nightmares for weeks, I’m sure,) her
screeching minions, and a giant, one-eyed monster hanging around outside. At
first, the baddies are effective. Pretty darn terrifying, to be honest. But
when they’re the ONLY monsters you face, they lose their effectiveness very quickly.Sadly,
that’s the best way to describe Home Sweet Home. It starts out freaking scary
as fuck but, when you find yourself repeating the same crap over and over and
over (and over because the save points are automatic and, if you get stabbed to
death – AGAIN – by Boxcutter Betty, you usually have to go back a fair way,) it
just becomes a chore.I got so
bored with this one that about halfway through, I went online to see what other people were saying
about it. Plenty of rave reviews, which I get because it is scary (to
start,) with only the odd person like me saying that it was just dull. Worse than that, though, I
saw several people complaining that Home Sweet Home had a “To Be Continued”
ending, with the second part only available currently on Steam. That was when I
peaced out. It just isn’t worth the hassle of repetitive tasks to get
absolutely nowhere at the end.Is Home
Sweet Home worth playing? Sure, it’s worth a look – if you can finish it in a
single playthrough. For me (maybe because I do NOT excel at stealth,) I had to
return to it too many times to replay the same sections so I got bored very
quickly. While I was intrigued by the Thai legends that inspired the game and
found it extremely jumpy when I first started playing it, by the time I washed
my hands of Home Sweet Home, I just found it frustrating and tedious.Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ (3/5 stars)
-
Book Review: Weed Witch by Sophie Saint Thomas
After over thirty years of practice, it’s rare to come
across a book on witchcraft that has anything new to offer. I was excited to
come across a copy of Weed Witch by Sophie Saint Thomas because, with so
much changing legally and culturally around the use of marijuana, I thought it
would offer exactly that: something new.It did not.
Weed Witch promises a
‘comprehensive guide and spellbook’ that ‘explores the beautiful relationship
between weed and witchcraft’ but fails to deliver on any of those promises.I was expecting the book to start with a primer
(because these things usually do.) I should have realized when it started with
‘Is witchcraft real?’ that it wasn’t going to offer anything useful on the craft
front, but I held out hope that it would at least go much deeper in depth on
cannabis that it did witchcraft.It did not.
There were so many things this book could have
done. It could have provided a comprehensive history of cannabis, including how
it came to be cultivated and used for medicinal/recreational purposes. It could
have delved into the physical appearances of the plants and how different parts
of the plants could be used in magick beyond ingestions. It could have looked
at charms, symbolism, and color magick.
And that’s not to mention all the spells and sigils it
could have included – because there’s more to weed magick than just “get
stoned and have sex.”Sophie Saint Thomas writes like someone who doesn’t
take her craft seriously. Her idea of magick is nothing more than
“manifesting” while high. Worse, she writes about weed like a giggly
teenager who got high once and can’t stop bragging about it.So… basically half the spoiled little white girls at
Coachella.No one is going to argue that manifestation is the
most important part of magick – but manifesting without doing the real work is
just a sloppy, ineffectual shortcut. Half-ass your magick and you get
half-assed results.Or worse.
Everything about Saint Thomas and her book screams
“shortcut.” She describes her path as being the victim of sexual
assault, attending black mass (eyeroll,) getting stoned, then becoming a witch.Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Me?
Many of us are drawn to the craft because of a need to
take control of our lives after trauma. There’s nothing wrong with that. There
is plenty wrong, however, with turning to so-called black mass and drugs
instead of getting professional help. Writing a book encouraging people to
follow your footsteps without telling them to seek therapy first is just
irresponsible.If it sounds like I’m coming down hard on the author,
it’s because I am. If you write an instructional book, you have a
responsibility to ensure you are providing the best advice and the most correct
information you can. Saint Thomas doesn’t even bother to draw distinct lines
between things like Wicca, witchcraft, and Satanism. She is as reckless in her presentation
of information as her writing suggests she is with her drug use.Weed Witch starts
with the basic assumption that the reader knows nothing about witchcraft but
then fails to provide the basics needed to guide readers on their way. It would
have been better if it had assumed at least a basic knowledge of the craft so
it could have gone into more depth on marijuana. As it is, it just comes across
as frou-frou basic bitch shit. (You’ll notice I didn’t say “basic witch.” I
won’t give her that much credit.)I don’t know what makes the author qualified to teach
others when she seems to know so little herself. She states things as facts
without backing them up, taking a “’Cause I said so!” approach to knowledge.
Nowhere is this approach more noticeable than in the “Selected
Sources” section at the end of the book. When you’re providing information
you gathered from so many other places and presenting it as absolute fact,
you’d better have a full bibliography.Cite. Your. Damn. Sources.
Not just some of them.
And I’d better not see your own damned self
listed in the biblio FIVE TIMES. That just stinks of RFK Jr using his own work
to justify his crazy ass decisions.Actually, everything about this book stinks. I haven’t
disliked a book on witchcraft this much in a very long time. (I won’t even
mention the other one because I don’t want to encourage anyone to go looking
for it.) If you’re looking for a book that explores weed and its uses in
witchcraft, look somewhere else. Weed Witch is just two hundred
some pages of “Have you tried smoking a spliff then having an amazing
orgasm?”Rating: ⭐ (1/5 stars)
