Me: *leading the team meeting so I get to create the ice breaker* It’s my birthday coming up and you have an endless amount of money. What’s the most creative present you’re going to get me?
FINALLY! IT’S MY BIRTHDAY! WHOOP! Another complete revolution around the sun, another personal new year, another celebration of being the fastest sperm cell, and another year closer to death! No. Just kidding! C'mon guys… This time, I drew my O.C.s and myself getting ready to celebrate! Have a great day everyone! This is the last installment of my birthday art challenge! Hope you guys liked it! It was really a fun challenge to do while it lasted. Don’t worry. I’ll still post art, of course.
So! I have a few little things to be celebrating, especially with this blog, and I wanted to share them around!
First of all, thank you so much to those who follow me as i just hit 460 followers! That’s an insane number, and I appreciate all of you! Especially those who leave neato notes in the tags of my work or
But there’s a few other things I want to celebrate too. My birthday is just around the corner this coming monday on star wars day XD and I started this blog just after my last birthday!! So we have the 1yr anniversary of my blog too!! ALSO I am almost at 1000 posts on this blog, most of which is other people’s amazing stories, tropes and prompts!
I wanted to do something special, and since I don’t know what kind of things people would want to see since I have a bunch of stuff that I am behind on, and I’m not confident enough in my art skills to make a celebration out of it, I have decided to hold a little giveaway!
I want to make this very special, and the giveaway prizes will be an art commission by the amazing @albino-whumpee!!! There will be 2 prizes from this givaway:
One person shall recieve a flat colour half-body of 1 character of their choice.
And one other person shall recieve a half body black and white sketch of 1 character of their choice.
I shall be honest and say that I have never done something like this before, but here is how you enter the giveaway!
First, you must be following me.
Second, you must reblog this post. If your main account is different from your whump/writing account, please write in the tags what your main account is. Likes won’t count, I’m afraid.
As an optional extra, if you write whump and have it posted, feel free to reblog with a link to your favourite piece of work that you’ve written and I’ll read it and reblog it! I have a lot to owe to the whump community and after my semi-hiatus, I admit that I have fallen behind and I would like to read some whump that I might have missed!
The closing date for this giveaway is 9pm GMTonSunday May 3rd 2020.
I shall then randomly select 2 names from the entrants and make a post informing the winners of their prizes, and then@albino-whumpee shall be in touch with the winners!
Thank you so much to everyone, and good luck! I’ll try and make the winner announcement post my 1000th post on this blog, but either way thank you all again!
Made this little birthday drawing for myself because there is nothing I want more than for these characters to look at me like that (Mirabel too but she was obv not in the screenshot)
Yesterday was my 43rd birthday. Holy fuckballs. I am FORTY THREE YEARS OLD. Had you asked me at 20 if I’d see 2020 I’d have laughed in your face. Even though I’ve had a lot of anxiety about my birthday (I will explain) because people are very kind and I have people who love me, they helped a lot.
So why am I so fucking birthday anxious? It isn’t aging. I’m good with aging even the…
In a few hours I will be turning 32 years old, 6 months ago I PROMISED myself I would not go into 32 being in active addiction. I am trying but I LITERALLY purposely took my sleeping meds so I would stay asleep all day so I WOULDNT USE METH.
My husband is off on weekends so he’s been with the kids.
It’s 10pm I am just waking up for a second time to eat and whatever and the first thing I grab is what?
MY PILO my throat actually kinda burns wanting to hit this bitch.
In my brain I justify it somehow being ok because I am not slamming it.
I NEVER REALLY FELT LIKE A JUNKIE UNTIL I STARTED SLAMMING IT AND NOW IM TRYING NOT TO ANYMORE .
What the fuck have I done to myself?
I knew fucking better then to play with fire and I ACTUALLY THOUGHT I WOULDNT GET HOOKED .
Anyway happy birthday to me.
The junkie mother
ADD me on Snapchat for best quality meth user name hornyjunkieslut
Just to say that I’m so thankful and humbled from all the delightful messages & support and things that people have sent to me, I feel so utterly blessed. I’m just working my way through . As usual I had two ‘real life person’ pressies to open and just one card - so without all these lovely people sending me messages my day would indeed have been dull and as boring as the rest of my life can be these days.
I just feel so loved & if your name is on here please be known that I think you’re wonderful and a terrific human being.
I have only just got through all the messages! everyone is SO lovely.
Thanks to @Justmice for being lovely & sending me a load through my paypal money - I shall spend a bit of it on meds & the rest on some more fun things! x
Thanks to @khorazir for the Legolas Rubber Duck for my bathroom (I collect ducks & Have over 100 now!) - really sweet of you to buy it for me *many hugs* x
Thank to @bethmoose for the spider-man blu ray from my wishlist, I shall watch it tomorrow! - really gorgeous of you hun. x
Also thanks to @Pennypaperbrain for buying me the Doctor Who Kirikkt book - I’ve coveted this one for ages. *huge hugs* cheers sweety! x
& thanks to Anon for the Douglas Adam Book - whoever you are thanks for being utterly lovely! xx
And also I got a wheelchair cosy but it didn’t say who it was from - so huge thanks for that, whoever you are!!
(Edit) did some sleuthing & found out it came from @gwndlyn (Amazon didn’t include any message, so well confuddled me!) Thanks so very much hun *huge hugs* I shall have cost feet next time I go out in my chair!!
It’s my birthday on the 20th April, and I’m really not looking forwards to it, It’s usually pretty bad, but being disabled & having spent most of the past two years in lockdown, it’s obviously going to be even more ridiculously empty than usual & I hoped anyone reading this could help.
I’m Very disabled & I have to spend 95% of the time in bed & most of that lying down flat. I’m in immense & constant pain and my head and body feels like I have permanent flu all the time (real proper fevery flu).
As you can imagine this is not very conducive to making real life friends, I did have lots when I was fit and well and could put time and effort into keeping up friendships, but they’ve dwindled somewhat now that I can’t. I also have a very teeny family, & I’ve worked out that on my birthday I’ll have probably have 2 presents and about 4 cards to open if I’m very lucky.
So I wondered if, out of the kindness of your hearts, on the 20th April you could send me a fun message to cheer me up, or tag me in a post, or write something to me to keep me occupied, or post something nice for me to look at & take my mind off the dullness of being in bed 24/7.
I’m not doing this for any kind of sympathy or pity – it’s just that my birthday is quite utterly sad otherwise - for the past few years I’ve asked people to do this & I got a wonderful response and even last year had some amazing people send me things from my Amazon wish list, so I had actual presents to open, which was most unexpected and utterly delightful. I’ve been really ill recently with SAD as well - but I’m still posting when I can and struggling on & I’ll post as often as I can possibly do so. Recently with Covid my life has gotten even more dull, I’ve been even more cut off from the real world than ever before.
My about me page is (here) incase you’d like to read more on why I’m disabled. There are also pictures of me in my wheelchair from a few years ago.
Added my Amazon wishlist (here)& I added vouchers in case peeps prefer that to choosing things, so I can buy meds/supplements with it, bless you so much.
Hello everyone! It’s December 12th, and today just so happens to be a very special day… it’s my birthday!
One year ago today, I made what may just be my absolute shortest post announcing to the few followers that I had at the time that it was my birthday. It wasn’t anything special, and the only reason I had uploaded it at all was because I was proud to share that the twelfth of December is a date I look forward to all year.
This year, however, I wanted to try a little something different. Instead of settling for a three word post (I still can’t get over how short that post is.), a few months ago I had an idea of what I could talk about when 12/12 rolled around.
I’ve mentioned this briefly once before in the answer to an ask that had been sent in, but there’s a very good reason that my blog name is ‘StarDestroyer81'— it’s a combination of the subtitle and release year to one of my all-time favorite arcade games, Bosconian!
Unfortunately, Bosconian isn’t all that well-known of a title, especially when pitted against some of Namco’s other smash hits, such as Pac-Man and Dig Dug. So, for my birthday and just in time for Bosconian’s 40th anniversary..
Let’s talk about Bosconian: Star Destroyer!
Bosconian was released by Namco in… well, 1981! The game began to show up in arcades in Japan on November 7th of that year, whereas its was released worldwide (By Midway Games) the next month.
I’ve spent such a long time digging around to try and find an exact date as to when in December the worldwide release happened (How cool would it be if it was on my birthday?), though I did find the date of December 5th, though don’t take this as the definite date.
Whenever I talk to my friends about Bosconian, a majority of them have never heard of it (Appropriately so), and so I describe it to them 'The Star Way'— it’s like Galaga, but a million times cooler. Bosconian is a multi-directional space shooter type of arcade game, and unlike Galaga, not only can you move wherever you’d like instead of being limited to the x-axis, but you can move and shoot in eight different directions!
Bosconian puts you as the player in the esteemed Starfighter, a spacecraft which has but one goal: to seek and destroy the base stars (Also known as 'Orbitals’), which are large, green enemy bases. It’s no easy task, however, as the entire time you’re being chased by oncoming fleets of enemy ships on top of steering clear of asteroids and Cosmo Mines, which can be destroyed for additional points.
Each level of Bosconian gives you a set number of base stars to vanquish, whose destinations are conveniently identified on a map on the right side of the screen (A blinking red dot signifying where you’re at). Blast all the base stars and you’re off to the next parsec!
The base stars have six circular cannons which can open fire should you get too close, though its projectiles are relatively easy to avoid should they not be too clustered. To defeat the base stars, you have two options: the standard way, or the patented “Star Method”.
Regularly, you would shoot work your way around each base star and shoot out all of its cannons. Once all six are destroyed, the entire base star blows up. Conversely, if you go about the ever-cool “Star Method”, if you line up your shot just right, you can shoot between the bottom or top two cannons to shoot directly at the core of the base star, which blows it up immediately. It’s SO satisfying!
Sometimes, the game alerts you to go into 'battle stations’, which means a select base star has sent out a fleet of five enemy ships in a certain formation that will hone in on your location. By being reckless, it can be easy to not see where they’re coming from and run right into them, but with quick handiwork, they can all be blasted for a nifty point bonus provided none have left the screen.
You might also notice that on the right side of the screen, there’s a section reading your ship’s “condition”. Having a Condition Green means that everything is relatively lax, and there’s not much action afoot. A Condition Yellow means that things are looking a bit dangerous, and is the usual condition for a majority of the game.
And then there’s Condition Red…
Before I get into specifics about Condition Red, I should also mention the importance of one of Bosconian’s most vicious foes: the dreaded Spy Ship. Easily spotted by its bright yellow color, the Spy Ship appears from a random corner of the screen, and will glide around the player at a distance before vanishing off screen. If you see the Spy Ship, stop everything and destroy it before it leaves. If you don’t,or if you take too long in a level…
Condition Red happens. Heart-pounding music sets in as an enormous amount of enemy ships will fly in from all directions directly toward your ship. If you don’t act fast and blast the remaining base stars, you’re as good as space junk.
Something that sets Bosconian apart from a lot of other space shooters at its time was the fact that it— in a forty year old game, mind you— included voice acting. Throughout your cosmic escapades, various voice lines will play, and right here is a list I’ve made of all of them and when they occur!
“Blast off!” - Played when starting a stage. “Alert! Alert!” - Played when an enemy ship draws near. “Battle stations!” - Played when a fleet of five ships leaves a base star, in search of your ship. “Spy Ship sighted!” - Played when a Spy Ship appears. This is an excellent audio clue to know when to start looking for it. “Condition Red!” - Played when… uh, take a wild guess.
While it’s neat that Bosconian has these voice samples, I personally didn’t hear them in action until long after I played it for the first time on the first Jakks Pacific Namco Plug-and-Play, which lacked the samples. And, additionally… some of these voice samples don’t even sound like what is actually being said.
For example, for a while, these are what I heard instead:
’Spy Ship sighted!’ may just be the clearest sample of them all, but ’Condition Red!’, on the other hand… when I was little, I had no clue what was being said, and didn’t use contextual clues to look to the right of the screen.
Speaking of taking visual cues… what does all of this even look like? If you’d like to check out the original, 1981 arcade version, here’s a longplay of it where you can check out my long descriptions of in-game goings-on in action!
Alternatively, check out the Jakks Pacific port, which was the version of Bosconian that not only I grew up with, but also set my all-time personal best score of 505,750on!
I think that’s about everything that I’ve wanted to dive into regarding Bosconian, and I hope that with my explanations that anyone reading this has a better understanding of what Bosconian is. It’s such a cool game that deserves a whole lot of recognition! I hope you’ve enjoyed everything this post has had to offer, as I’ve waited quite a bit to write about this game!
Armenian, an ancient language I am forever butchering when I try to talk, has the most useful word in the world, “Vo'chinch,” (Ոչինչ) an expression that literally means, “Nothing,” but is used in the same way that the French use, “Comme ci Comme ca” — neither good nor bad, it just is.
