What Are You Happy About Today?

[Bluelady]

Earlier my nephew wanted to nap a little longer, so I got to play on my Switch a little more.

 

[LadyDestani]

I didn't have much to be happy about today, but I did complete my submissions for Hero's Crossing and Behind the Bookcase. I'm pretty happy with how both of them turned out. Also my husband was very sweet to me, which was appreciated based on the way the rest of my day was going.

 

[.: Meri :.]

☾ My family and I watched another episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood this morning! Also caught a little bit of Youtube with them later. ^^
☾ I finally finished the first of the two drama CDs I got recently! Can't wait to start on the second one.
☾ I've made a lot of progress on the last Forest of the Lustrous coloring page! Wish I could've worked on it more, but I think it's coming along really nicely so far. c:

 

[xSuperMario64x]

been a rough few days but I have things to be happy about


★ halloween decorations are starting to fill the stores and I'm so excited, halloween is my favorite holiday so I love that people are getting excited now!!

★ managed tor resubmit my entry for Behind the Bookcase and send in my entry for Hero's Crossing before the deadline. I'm kinda worried abt them not getting accepted but that's prob just my anxiety ;;

★ idk if I mentioned this before but I'll mention it again anyways, so as a kid back in 2005 I really liked collecting the Neopets kacheek keychain plushies from McDonalds, and I remember having a green one. I missed having one so, much like the LPS digital pet, I got myself some new little kacheek plushies. I got a yellow one, a cloud one, and a starry one. hoping they will be here Tues or Wed

Spoiler: they look like this

I've never played neopets but these little guys are just so cute. I also love the starry one, that was one I always wanted as a kid so I'm happy to finally be getting it!

edit: went back and realized I just talked abt this super early Saturday (so like 2 days ago) but I'm pretty excited for this so I figured I would bring it up again!

★ I found a ten gallon aquarium starter kit for about $34 so I might look into possibly getting it when I get paid again

★ started playing my HeartGold randomizer with my friend earlier (she's playing a SoulSilver randomizer) and it's been interesting so far, my starter is a Zubat that only knows leech life and supersonic so it's starting a bit slow but I'm enjoying it

★ my SO got scheduled for all morning shifts this coming week so when he's back from his trip we will be able to chat in the evenings <333

★ yesterday I got a little 3x3 pop-it, I've never had one of these before but I honestly have not stopped messing with this thing since I bought it. best $2.50 I ever spent lol.


one last thing, depression has been killing me but I have an appt with my doctor on Wednesday to talk abt my medications so here's hoping I can get it figured out again.

 

[hakutaku]

- did a 20 minute HIIT workout last night! I haven't done more than 15 mins in a while, so I feel a little accomplished. My arm muscles have gotten so much bigger since I started working out lol

- watched the new episode of House of the Dragon, I'm really enjoying it!

- made myself some porridge topped with nectarine, banana, chia seeds, biscoff spread, peanut butter, and protein chocolate pudding. I do tend to go over the top with my porridge choices, it was delicious though!

 

[Sanaki]

All my houseplants are growing leaves at the same time, also my zebra plant is finally recovering from being shipped in the mail and is standing upright again.

My monstera is unfurling a huge leaf and I put it outside in the shade so I get to feel happy about the amount of light it will get today.

 

[Lady Timpani]

I'm giving crochet another go after getting some advice from people and I think it's Finally Coming Together for me. I've had my eye on some patterns for awhile now and I'm hoping to be able to actually start some of them soon!

 

[Shellzilla_515]

I was initially trying to post this last night, but it was dragging on woops.

August 28, 2022

Guys, the time has finally come. That's right, after five months of working on my art project that I keep talking about, it is finally done. And now I'm going to reveal it! Now, what art project is it that you ask? Oh, who am I kidding, if you know me quite a bit, I wouldn't be surprised if you thought that I made a car livery in Gran Turismo 7! But it's not just any car livery, I've made one for a particular member around here, and that would be @/xSuperMario64x (which I will refer to him as Bug for the remainder of this post)! It's obvious that he loves Beetles, so it makes sense for me to make one for him after telling me about Beetle Adventure Racing which started this idea in the first place all the way back sometime in March. Bug did a good job keeping this art project of mine a surprise from some of you. Though, I wouldn't be surprised either if you figured it out well before the reveal. I mean, occasionally talking to Bug and sharing videos of me doing silly engine swaps in the game probably gave that away lol.

Here's the car in action during an online race against other people! The cars I was battling against were the Chevrolet Corvette C7 Gr.3 and the 2017 Porsche 911 RSR (991). They were probably wondering why my car is littered with animals all over the place with little tykes colours. There are sounds, but make sure the volume is low first. Also, this is a saved replay meaning I got to make use of the 360 camera view. I obviously didn't control it while driving lol.

https://imgur.com/LJLZoW3

It's a little hard to see the details in the video (thanks, video compression), so I'll drop some photos so you guys could get a closer look if you want! Plus, I'll just post the rest of my stuff in more detail over at my art thread at a later date. And take a good look because it's gonna get pretty lengthy, so feel free to skim through or skip it entirely. I don't mind.

Spoiler: Me doing Shellzilla stuff again lol

Before I start, there are some decals that aren't made by me, mainly the logos and a couple of other things. When first starting out, I thought that the livery should contain Bug's likes, interests, and hobbies such as Nintendo 64 stuff, rainbows, and of course, Waluigi. However, the meat and potatoes of this livery are the vast amounts of OCs that he has created over the years, and this explains why it took me so long to complete it. I found them all on his toyhouse page if anyone's asking. Anyway, a few are newly created this year, but there are some that have been created a long time ago. Heck, a couple of Bug's OCs already came into existence all the way back in 2005-2006, or at the very least, the concept of them! If you ever looked through Bug's art thread over in the museum section, you may recognize some of these characters! As for the car itself, it's called the Volkswagen Beetle Gr.3 based on the Beetle A5 model sold from 2011 to 2019 which I have seen a few times during my drives out on the road. Unfortunately, the road car itself doesn't appear in Gran Turismo 7 which confuses me.
Front

Here, you see some cute animals. These are actually Bug's plushies! He has a huge plushie collection, but I only did the ones he has drawn so far. Before moving on, the Beetle is coloured red. That's because Bug drives a New Beetle convertible irl in pretty much the same colour, so think of it as a souped-up version of it lol. And if you're wondering why there are faces on the front bumper, I decided to give them Smash Bros Ultimate stock icons! It basically doubled my work because of this lol. As for the yellow parts on the car, it is one of Bug's favourite colours along with purple.

Spoiler: A piece of art that I liked from this view

Meet Alex the white republic red fox! He's one of Bug's many plushies in his collection and I liked how it turned out. I was tempted a few times to use the mirror tool to make a few things symmetrical, but I wanted to be honest with myself and continue trying to conquer art lean. My sister really loved this drawing due to how cute Alex is.

Back

The drawings you see here (aside from Waluigi and Wario) are Bug's OCs based on Super Mario characters! Assuming Bug plays the game from a chase cam view, I thought it'd be nice for him to always see his characters, Sterling, Waluigi, and Wario during gameplay.

Spoiler: Another piece of art that I'm happy with

Meet Toby the ginger tabby! I really like the pose and a bit of perspective incorporated here based on the Super Mario Odyssey box cover. I initially tried to make him throw his hat, but it looked too weird so now it looks like Toby is just dancing lol.

Back Window

Just some SSBU stock icons of Bug's Super Mario characters along with the progress pride flag (I didn't make that decal)! You might've noticed that there are what appear to be piano keys on parts of the car. This is because Bug is pretty skilled at playing the piano and yet, not many people appreciate that which is unfortunate. And yes, Plankton is finally getting his hands on the krabby patty on the rear wing lol. I didn't make those Spongebob Squarepants decals, though.

Left side

These are Bug's characters over in his "OCs" folder. I'm bad at drawing humans, so apologies in advance if I hurt your eyes lol.

Spoiler: Woof

Meet Master Starla the Siberian husky! This is the art piece I mentioned a while back that I initially didn't feel happy with. But really, this looks pretty good considering I'm still getting used to drawing animals on all fours. On a side note, the colour palette gives me huge Steven Universe vibes for whatever reason.

Right side

Look, a lot of Bug's anthro OCs are cute, and I lowkey want a plushie of them just so I could give them a hug. Here's something interesting: These drawings I made for these characters are actually flipped from their original form! As a result, this puts my art skills to the test to see how much art lean exists. Now you know why I wanted to combat this problem of mine, and it honestly looks pretty decent.

Spoiler: Yet another art piece I'm happy with and a test against art lean

Meet Alia (pronounced AY-lee-uh) the fennec fox! Omg, I absolutely love how I drew her. She looks so adorable and happy! I want to hug her so much lol.

Notice how it doesn't look out of place despite mirroring the drawing? This looks really good!

Top

I made the roof black to make it look like a convertible since Bug's car happens to be one. Also, that huge thwomp you see is one of his favourite Super Mario enemies, so it makes sense to put it on there as a cherry on top.

First-person view

I usually play from this view whenever I play the game for immersion. You could barely see the rad feather on the windshield banner, but the reflection from the dashboard is making it hard to see. Hmm, I wonder what's on that side mirror? And the speedometer is in km/h. What is that in mph I wonder?

So yeah, I put in a monumental amount of effort for this livery lol. And you're probably asking, "Shellzilla, are you okay?". To answer that question, yes! I'm all good, and I had a lot of fun drawing Bug's OCs and converting them into SVG files so I could use them in Gran Turismo 7. I'm honestly surprised how I didn't get art burnout considering the amount of time it took me along with other things in life that tried to bring me down. In case how I did the work to make one drawing, here's how it goes:

1. I make a drawing.

- If I struggle to draw on a particular area, I look up tutorials.
- I start a new document and do some warmup sketches, whether it'd be specific lines or postures.
- Make a line of action and ground plane
- Make a gesture
- Make a stick figure to set out the structure
- Start sketching out the stuff
- Do the rough outlines on top of the rough sketch for a better idea of where to go
- Do the clean final outlines.
- Colour in the areas using the colourize mask in Krita
- Do some shading
- Write in my username and date of completion

1. Save the drawing as a png file and port it over to Inkscape to be traced.
2. Once done, I head to this website that optimizes the svg file to be used in the game while not sacrificing quality in the process. I'm glad to have found this site sometime back in February because it saved me a lot of headaches. Prior to finding it, my decals would sometimes not show up properly in the game, making me cry in the process lol.
3. Use the decal uploader over at the Gran Turismo website.
4. Open up the livery editor.
5. Apply my decals wherever I want on the car.

Now do that again to 52 other characters. You could imagine how many hours it took me to complete them all. Dare I say well over 100 hours even! The structure is similar when making the Smash Bros. stock icons, so that makes it 104 pieces in total! Speaking of Smash Bros., I guess I really did an "Everyone is here!" from Ultimate. Great, now I'm hearing the menu theme from that game which absolutely slaps lol. Now I'm fully aware of the fact that Bug doesn't really play games that have realistic driving physics and you're now asking, "But Shellzilla, if Bug doesn't play Gran Turismo, then what's the point of making a livery for him?". Well, I'll list a few points right now.

1. My art skills have improved slightly compared to when I first started. Before, I had a bad case of art lean. Now, not so much. Prior to starting, I struggle to draw animals that walk on all fours. Now, I can somewhat do it competently, and I'm happy to add those sets of skills under my belt. Drawing hands have gotten a little better for me as well.
2. Because I like cars. Perhaps a no-brainer for some if you know me a bit. Combining my art skills with something that I liked ever since I was very young is awesome. Even though my identified cars list are mostly American and Japanese cars from the not-so-recent-years, I'm happy to see a bunch of them in the Gran Turismo series and actually seeing them in real life, especially the lesser known cars.
3. I have the game. Let's not forget the one who made the livery in the first place. I can drive this Beetle whenever I want and take photos of it!
4. A strengthened friendship with Bug. Honestly, this is a big one for me. We were already friends for quite some time before I started making the livery, but there's something about it that allowed me to get along with Bug more. I occasionally update him on my progress in this car livery, but I eventually found myself being more comfortable talking to him about other stuff and getting to know him better. Bug has been through a lot this year and it makes me sad with the negativity in life he's dealing with, so it warms my heart to have given him some comfort a few times. Of all places where my friendship grows with someone, it had something to do with cars... This is not what I expected at all, but I'm happy that it happened. Bug is honestly such a great guy to talk to and deserves a lot of respect, love, and understanding as a human being, so it always makes me happy hearing the awesome stuff he's been doing with his significant other.

If you're wondering how Bug reacted to this livery, to say that he liked it is a huge understatement. In fact, he doesn't have words to describe how much he loved it and enjoyed every single moment of viewing the livery.

Since I've put so much focus into completing this car livery, I ended up shooting myself in the foot (metaphorically of course) by not doing some of the activities for the TBT Fair and not getting more tickets as a result. Honestly, I am totally okay with that since there's really only one or two collectibles I'm interested in. The happiness of my friends are valuable to me, and no amount of collectibles and other goodies can ever top that, no matter how pretty they are.

At the beginning of this art project, I was aiming to finish this livery sometime in August, preferably before it finishes. Not only did I achieve that, but just before my birthday too. That colourize masking trick in Krita REALLY helped save me lots of time and I'm glad my curiosity helped me out in the long run. Well then, I guess I should play the gold medal theme from Gran Turismo 7.

Now for some other stuff:

• The weather was nice with sunny skies.
• I went karting again after not doing so in years! The track I went to was a bit bumpy, but I actually liked it since it felt like I was going fast despite moving at around 20 km/h. But yeah, the experience was awesome going through turns and feeling the g-forces. There's this one corner I really liked where it was a long right-hander and then suddenly turns left. It was fun trying to flick the kart through there carrying some speed. My arms and legs were feeling a little bit jelly after, though.
• I went to this particular restaurant a few hours later with my family after not eating there since covid threw stuff at all of us in the world. The food was very yummy and I had a juicy yummy burger, some fries, and some poutine! Very yummy stuff, and I felt very full after savouring the food. In a way, I was celebrating my birthday in advance since some stuff came up, and can't do anything about it. Don't worry, it's nothing serious.
• Since online for Playstation was free for the weekend, I got to participate in some online races against other people in Gran Turismo 7! I'll be upfront by saying that I struggled badly in terms of where I finished. It also doesn't help with the fact that:

Spoiler: List + screenshot of my worst finish lol

1. The races took place at Willow Springs International Raceway - Big Willow which I'm not very good at driving in. It's also very punishing when you make even a small mistake. If you dip a tire in the dirt for a little bit, you're either going to get yeeted off by the track or spin out and lose time as a result. This has happened to me a few times, but I've witnessed those same incidents from other people as well getting deleted by the track. There's also a few hills here and there, so there was one that jumped into the air a bit which made me laugh.
2. I was matched against other drivers with a similar skill level as me or even faster at least half of the time. My skills are actually close to the higher end of the rankings, so there's more people going full on sweat mode to try and finish well.
3. Rammers. I had this one incident where this guy straight up crashed into me at a high speed going into a corner. I didn't do anything wrong and in fact, they were destroying other people's races as well, not just me. I lost a lot of positions, but I miraculously finished in the top 5 after other people were making mistakes. Fortunately, this was the only incident that happened to me and just moved on.

Yes, I'm aware it says "Honda The Power of Dreams" even though I'm driving the Beetle. And yes, that's baby shark lol.

• Continuing from Gran Turismo 7 with the online races, I did have a couple of close battles with a few people. Despite not finishing in a good position, it felt fun exhilarating racing each other cleanly! Also, in a sea full of bad results and a couple of top 5 finishes if I'm lucky, I somehow managed to snag a podium! Oh dear, Bug would be ecstatic about this!

Spoiler: Race photos and podium finish!

And I saved the best for last: My podium finish in 3rd place! I bet you're happy about this, Bug!

August 29, 2022

• Today is my birthday and I want to say thank you to all who decided to send me greetings! As for my family, my mother sang me happy birthday on the piano while my sister joined in.
• Just relaxing and having a great day.
• I'm still pretty happy that my car livery is finally finished and that Bug loved it so much.
• I played Gran Turismo 7 and was gifted a car for my birthday!

Spoiler: What car is it?

Oh my gosh, it's a 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 (C6)! You know, I absolutely love Corvettes regardless of what generation it is. This is a pretty awesome birthday gift.

• I'm going to play New Horizons in a bit!

If you made it this far, you deserve a piece of cake for withstanding my long posts yet again. I'm starting to notice that I really get things going when there is stuff that I really like to talk about. There are probably some grammatical errors still despite double-checking. Thank you for reading my essay lol.

 

[xSuperMario64x]

idk how I forgot to mention this last night (depression makes my memory suckkkk) but yesterday @Shellzilla_515 finished the livery he was making for me and I'm honestly just blown away by the amount of effort he has put into it. it's truly spectacular. hopefully he will show it off soon so everyone can see it!!

edit: omg he ninja'd me lollll look how good it is yall!!!!!

 

[JemAC]

From over the last couple of days -

• visited my aunt, uncle and cousins on Saturday - was the first time we'd all managed to get together for a few years so was great seeing them all, also both of my cousins became parents in June so it was really nice catching up and meeting their lovely little baby girls
• had a day off work on Sunday and didn't really do much but it was really nice to just relax for the day
• caught up with quite a few tasks for the TBT fair, completing an entry for each of the bigger 3 events which at the start of the fair I was sure I wouldn't get round to as I never write or draw but it was a great relief to get them done and pick up the participation tickets
• had a lot of cuddles with the pets - Oliver has recently spent a lot of time sleeping next to me whenever I'm at the sofa, though once I left him for a moment he stole my spot!

Also for something that hasn't happened yet but I'd been thinking about it today - going to see the My Neighbour Totoro theatre production in London in a couple of months, I love the film and can't wait to see the show

 

[Jhine7]

Going to the NYS Fair in an hour Go there every year, love it every time!

 

[Midoriya]

This week is starting off fantastic!

- I ordered groceries over the weekend and got root beer, which is awesome because I've been craving root beer lately. (I don't drink alcohol, this is just the emoji that fit the best, haha)

- I spent the weekend finishing the newest Archon quests in Genshin Impact and unlocking all of the Sumeru map! Here's some visually stunning pictures from gameplay.

Spoiler: Genshin pictures

- I also managed to get Tighnari C2! I got Tighnari, Tighnari C1, and Tighnari C2 all within 20 wishes of each other!

- Absolutely crushing it at work today, and we're already ahead!

- I'm headed to martial arts practice tonight! Hopefully going to work on some techniques again.

- My partner has been super sweet as usual.

- I heard it's my good friend @Shellzilla_515 's birthday today! Shellzilla has been a great friend to me on TBT over the years. I hope you're having a fantastic birthday, buddy!

 

[ZeldaCrossing64]

♡ Watched some Poofesure today, started with his latest video (he sucks at playing Smash Bros. XD) and moved onto his Wii Party videos. I enjoyed his video wii party raging and funny moments the most, I couldn't stop smiling and laughing. I fricking lost it at Poof laughing/wheezing and saying "Their faces when they're found!" during the Hide-and-Peek minigame.

♡ Some of the puppies got sold today, and I'm sad to see them go (especially Mickey, he's one of my favorites), but the fact that we're making both the puppies and the families happy is enough for me.

♡ Today is my cat's birthday! I couldn't really celebrate it because she became an outdoor cat (aka she doesn't live in this house anymore), but that's okay. I can't believe my Caramel is already 4 years old!

♡ My brother bought powdered-sugar donuts and they're really good.

♡ Played a bit of Tomodachi Life today, and not much happened but I did geta new food item (a stawberry ) which I'm happy about.

♡ Made some more Miis on my Switch. I really liked the selection and I had fun making all of them.

Spoiler: Miis

 

[xSuperMario64x]

★ my little kacheek plushies came in the mail today (earlier than expected yay!) and oh my goodness. they're honestly even better than I remember! I'm especially happy to finally have the starry one, he's so adorable and I'll definitely find something to clip him onto (as well as the yellow one ofc they're both so cute skdjfskldjf)

I should be getting the cloudy one sometime this week as well. and honestly I kinda think I want to collect the rest of the colors too! I still need the red one, green one, blue one, and I think there's a pink one as well. I can't get enough of these little guys!

Spoiler: also my desk has a kidcore thing going on and I love it

I've got my jellyfish (Jeffrey and his wee baby), some Webkinz cats I got recently, my LPS digital pet, a new pop-it I got today, my Lisa Frank Hunter print, little figurines/toys, and ofc my kacheek keychain plushies. as well as the lovely note that my SO gave to me, I keep it on my desk and read it when I feel sad <333
and yes, I've been binge watching Poofesure's wii sports videos all day. he's one of the few things that can break through my depression and continue to make me laugh uncontrollably lol.

★ I've had to work the last two days, which normally wouldn't bother me but when I'm depressed I tend to get tired super easily so I've kinda been dragging myself through work. but I have the next two days off so I'll get to sleep in tomorrow

★ also an update on the kitten we're planning on adopting, he was taken earlier today to be fixed so he's one step closer to coming home with us!!

★ I had a thought earlier today that I really wanted to buy a new game, so I used the rest of the money I had to (finally) buy a copy of Luigi's Mansion 3! luckily I get paid again on Thursday, I'm broke now lol rip I haven't played it yet bc I want to record my initial reaction with my capture card, so I need to get my switch set up with my computer and I'll probably do that tomorrow :3

★ I also have recorded footage of me playing Wii Party for the first time! I'm wondering whether or not I should even use it for a yt video bc I've been dealing w depression and I sometimes have a difficult time with commentary when I'm depressed, but I'll go in and edit it and see if I'm happy with it. in case anyone was wondering, yes I did get completely screwed over on my very first round of Board Game Island. it's rigged as hell

★ got a little more cleaning done today, coming home from work earlier I realized my desk was really cluttered so I cleaned that, as well as taking trash out that's been needing taken out for a few days. I'm chipping away at this stuff so hopefully I can kinda keep up with it until I can get over my depression.

★ I have plans to go swimming with my friend and her baby sometime this week (hopefully tomorrow) so that should be fun!

 

[-Mars-]

---

 

[LadyDestani]

Today I'm happy because:

- My day was better than yesterday.
- I got some laundry done that had been piling up.
- We got the 3 tickets from this round of the Wishing Well!
- I got my submission in for the latest round of the Witch's Quest.
- The final line art for Forest of the Lustrous is gorgeous and I can't wait to start coloring it!
- I didn't have to stress about my contest submissions since that deadline has been met.
- I had some comfort food for dinner tonight: mac & cheese, mashed potatoes, and rice.
- I had chocolate beignets for dessert.
- My husband is so sweet to me and my dog is adorable.
- I have a three day weekend coming up.

 

[.: Meri :.]

@Shellzilla_515 Congrats on completing your art project!!! (*⌒▽⌒)ﾉ You've done a great job!!

☾ I got to work on the last Forest of the Lustrous coloring page some more!!
☾ We got a new round of Where is Gnome?, and I love reading everyone's captions on these.
☾ Got some gelato with our groceries today! ^^ It's been a while since I've had any.
☾ We made all the ticket goals in this round of the Wishing Well!

 

[Drawdler]

I’ve made some important personal progress today. I’m getting better.

 

[Millysaurusrexjr]

i had the yummiest coconut donut today. And it was VEGAN. Science is amazing

 

[Kitsuragi]

today and yesterday sucked, i had a sudden family issue yesterday and my powers been out. BUT, my boss has been so freaking kind and understanding. he let me leave early for the fam emergency and hes offering to let us borrow one of our work generators so we can get power at my house. and thats enough to make me really happy in the face of adversity.
edit: ALSO PSL IS BACK YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA