マチカネフクキタル/Fukukitaru praying for great fortunes for the new year! :’D

Fukukitaru with her Nyaa-san lucky cat backpack??

I didn’t know it was a backpack until later whoops haha

She’s always with a lot of charms and lucky items (she’s a hoarder based on her character backstory)!

I did this fanart because someone I know plays Umamusume and this is their favourite character ;D

I have never played this game but I have watched some streams and it’s not my type of game! I have learned bits and pieces about it (out of curiosity and in the wild) and watched the first season of Cinderella Gray.

There’s so many horse girls/Umas since they have plenty of real life racehorses to base high school horse girl characters on (it’s a universe where horse boys and horses don’t exist ;P). Within the game they keep it wholesome to my knowledge with the trainer/student dynamic (it’s a training sim and gatcha after all) given that people who own the real horses own the licensing for them.

Noting that horse racing as a whole is a complicated, problematic, abusive industry depending on the country but I won’t go into that because I am not an expert about it.

I’ll have a timelapse when I have enough for a Year of the Horse compilation ;D

Leonie keeping my ramble short…hopefully

• today I strained my knees and my body is sore/bruised a bit because I missed a step on a ladder
  • glad I didn’t fall completely onto the floor but ouch…I need to rest so it heals up…
  • installing window film is frustrating when you’re short and you’re fighting to hold up the film…
  • I gave up and accepted it when air bubbles keep happening
  • did a lot of windows except the last one but I am so exhausted and out of breath and didn’t bother with it
  • I guess I have to do it next time/year…
• watched the animated film Nobody (2025) spoiler talk:
  • I do recommend watching it!
  • I didn’t laugh for the most part but there were some great funny moments
  • lots of emotional moments too
  • the art style isn’t the usual kind of appealing but it doesn’t need to be, it’s still well animated
  • all the symbolism with working at a job
    • surviving/fighting against corporations as a grunt
    • it’s a losing battle because you lack the agency and power and opportunity and they keep changing the rules/hoops or they have better knowledge or luck oof :’)
  • what if you don’t have the connections, privilege of fame/money/charisma/attractiveness/influence?
  • do you fight/survive/live as yourself?
    • Do you game the system and copy those that succeed??
  • there was also a character who is forced/trained to be the Sandy persona and then loses a part of himself because he doesn’t chatter like he used to anymore :’)
    • yes that happens when you fake being someone else so much that it becomes the default and can’t function nor know who you really are anymore…
    • I felt so sad for him…
    • I feel for him as someone who used to mask so much 😭
  • What reality do you live in?
    • Who and what matters to you more in life?
      • What line will you cross to get ahead/survive?
  • A lot of food for thought
  • what is that dragged out scene within the vortex and climbing on top of the performance/acting/faking masks the gang was running on?? It could be a tad shorter and snappier as a sequence but ah well
  • second in command dog was respectfully living his reality and will get his revenge heh
  • Wukong…why are you gifting your 4 hairs to them
    • I thought the power is just cloning more monkeys with the hair so what is he doing??? ;P
• watched the film The Last Dance (2024) spoiler talk:
  • emotional and depressing drama film surrounding a funeral business
  • it’s so rare and hard to watch a current Cantonese movie oof…
  • I recognise a lot of the actors here!
    • good to see Dayo Wong as a lead actor again here
    • the actress for the paramedic was super great in her performance too
  • apparently this movie was (written?) and made during the height of the pandemic
  • that cringey trainwreck with the car at the funeral, the merch and the instagram live was painful to watch
  • also a lot of food for thought on life, death, misogyny/sexism, aging, retiring, not getting family nor emotional support when you’re ill, grief, fatherhood/parenthood, family pressure and how you want to spend the time you have in the world and with whom :’)
  • I’ve never experienced a Taoist funeral so it was insightful
    • experienced a few Buddhist funerals instead
  • I wish there was a clear sense of time between scenes
    • for instance – I don’t know how long she took care of her father
    • I feel like I lost the context of when/how moments happen
  • it was a lot of jumping from key moment to key moment so in some ways it felt shallow
    • it didn’t go too deep with the pregnancy storyline (solved off screen??)
      • when is bringing children into the world too late??
      • questioning with no correct answers – do you want to burden children with taking care of elderly parents?
    • it didn’t go too deep with the character moments at times – I felt like they could have fleshed out the relationships
      • like the brother’s wife and kid
      • the current funeral business director’s wife and the 3 young employees
      • the other Taoist practitioners
      • the cheating doctor, etc
    • the drama of the story still works well though
    • it felt like: this funeral story happens and then this family drama happens and back to another funeral story and so on
    • I don’t know these other characters outside of the funerals and it’s more about the family members (dad, paramedic daughter, practitioner brother)
      • even between the family members, I wished I saw/knew more of their positive moments as a family rather than being told about the favouritism or how she looked up to him, etc
      • then again a lot of asian family dynamics is tension, insulting, arguing or just uncomfortable, painful silence and that you don’t want to be around them at all because it’s suffocating
        • yes speaking from experience ha
  • the brother’s family immigrating to Melbourne felt real though
    • jumping hoops for the “better education” reason but I have no idea how the brother got the money for it – he has enough savings to survive and make a living there somehow?
  • the Taoist ritual thing that was traditionally only performed by men
    • some internet people argued there are also female practitioners and it was not discriminatory in real life
  • unsurprisingly they cut out the lesbian lover putting on the ring part in the mainland/Chinese version of the film
  • ultimately it’s about cherishing yourself and loved ones (the living and present)
    • do respect the grieving process, taking your time with it
    • and not obsessing too much over the past, traditions and those that passed
    • because we don’t know how much time we have in this world (as much as I don’t want to think about it)
    • and give each other grace, understanding and sticking to what you believe in
• attempted to roughly plan out the year…
  • it will always keep changing though so it’s always a thing I will wrestle with as I juggle too many things I want to do…
  • I will eventually get around to making my discord emotes!!
• got addicted to manga/light novel again…
  • I need to stop with harsher limits as I ended up running super low on sleep
  • because I kept reading and have no self control when I want to know what’s next wah
• I revised and finally cut my own hair (DIY) much shorter after a long while!!
  • and I don’t want to use too much water given how tight water resources are :<
• I progressed along with cutting/trimming and sewing the hem for some clothes that are too long for me because they’re not for short people ;P
  • still got two pants to go!!
  • it’s so time consuming to hand sew things!!
  • it is meditative though
• slowly getting some house work done but there’s always more ;P
  • there’s still a few things that haven’t been done for a long time oof
• not looking forward to health appointments I have and yet to make noooo
• there wasn’t much sales that I’m interested in but I did buy stuff I needed
  • and not giving into the temptations of buying more stationery / art stuff haha
  • need to be frugal/stingy (as usual thanks to my upbringing) because times are tough

Thank you so much for reading! 💕

2025 has been a rollercoaster, upsetting and rough year.

I don’t really celebrate new years either. I can’t believe 2025 ended though wow

What happened with time…we’re all getting older…

I hope 2026 brings great, wonderful, low stress, good things for us 🥹

And the strength, self love, purpose and good company to push through the not-so-great, tough, lonely, sad, disappointing, hurtful, depressing, frustrating, insecure and isolating times.

As I mentioned at my tiny discord: may we keep doing our best together with juggling art, health, learning, life and our connections with people in the year to come!
Taking things day by day!! <3

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