Largely due to the voice actresses enthusiastically embracing their roles, and the girls being well-drawn, Sounan Desu Ka? (“Are We Shipwrecked?”) is actually an amusing little show, and episode 8 finally delivers more than token fan-service, courtesy of a conveniently-placed hot spring.

I know I’m a bit late to the game on this one, but after recently upgrading my iPhone from a 6 Plus (not supported in the upcoming iOS 13, so the trade-in price started to drop…), I discovered the on-by-default feature known as Live Photos.

It really, really sucks. Especially as a default. Glad I found out before it ruined any useful pictures. Just a bunch of quick reference pics like this from the Retreat:

Seriously, all it does is document how much your hand moves after you press the shutter button, while breaking any image-processing workflow you might have. What is the actual use case that justifies the development and (coughcouch) QA resources?

The marudai braid Naiki (Tada #64, Creative Kumihimo 16N) has a lot of potential for interesting two-color patterns. Someday I’ll revisit the script I wrote five years ago to identify all unique patterns for a braid, and update it to correctly handle more than Edo Yattsu and Shigeuchi, but meanwhile I can at least generate random subsets of the possible interlacements and pick through them by hand.

Update

I replaced the crude single-page gallery that broke Randy’s browser with a custom Hugo sub-site that will eventually be a general-purpose gallery.

“Wait, they have feet?”

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Because San Francisco is Desperately Evading Real Problems (DERP), their Department Of Progressive Euphemisms (DOPE) has solved the problem of crime and drug addiction by replacing the derogatory terms for the crooks and bums that have filled their streets with crime and their sidewalks with feces. Convicted criminals are now Justice-Involved Persons or Formerly-Incarcerated Persons. Since recidivism has been redefined as Addiction, actual addicts are Persons with a History Of Substance Use.

The new temporarily-acceptable terms for criminal minors just roll off the tongue: Young Person Impacted by the Juvenile Justice System and Young Person with Justice System Involvement.

Exhibit A: for eight years, millions of heavily-armed People Of Pallor refused to even try to shoot Obama to put a White Man back in the White House.

…I made it out of the Benchmade factory store for under $200. It would have been much more difficult if I hadn’t just spent nearly twice that on precut kumihimo silk.

December 2020 UPDATE: now available

I have a few notes somewhere on odoshi, the braids or leather strips used to assemble yoroi armor, and had made a note to ask Makiko Tada about it if I got a chance. At the Retreat, someone happened to mention a recent post on the AKS Facebook page announcing a new Jacqui Carey book on the subject:

I did discuss it briefly with Tada-sensei at dinner, and she promised to introduce me to one of the few remaining armor-makers sometime when I’m in Tokyo.