Author: Nyx

Posted on

This is Why You Have ‘Rainy Day’ Posts

You work hard, you try to stick to a schedule, and look what happens. You sleep through posting a zine review.

On Wednesday, I said:

Barring any relapse, I will be back tomorrow with a fresh new zine review for you.

Well the relapses came in after that.

I have since read (and been told) this flu is a nasty one with people thinking that they’ve finally gone past it only for it to catch up again. I can attest to that with the massive pile of laundry I’ve accumulated due to ‘breaking’ I don’t know how many fevers.

My temperature has been normal for a couple days, but yesterday I thought, “Oh! I can actually walk. Now I can do all the things!”

Turns out I could do very few of the things and exhausted myself very quickly.

As the title states, this is why you have rainy day posts. This is why you prepare in advance. Just in case you get sick unexpectedly, and the illness hangs around – probably because the illness is making you stressed because you only have 11 more days to pack and clean this pain of a house…

I do have plans for a more consistent next two weeks, but we’ll see what actually happens.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Posted on

Zine Review: Wildlife of Victoria Vol 1 – Semi-Domesticated Animals

Wildlife of Victoria Vol 1 – Semi-Domesticated Animals
Apples
Twitter: https://twitter.com/celuran@cerulan
celuran@gmail.com

It was bound to happen again sometime, and here we are…

Wildlife of Victoria Vol 1 – Semi-Domesticated Animals is a funny black and white zine featuring two stories: one about bees and one about a goat. There are also some bee facts and recipes to try out thrown into the mix.

With the title being what it is, I expected something like a listing of wildlife encountered or something along the more ‘dry factual’ lines. I was surprised in all the best ways when I realised that, while this does serve as a guidebook of sorts (I had no idea that if you move bees, it has to be more than 5 kilometres away because they know their way home), it’s primarily a funny memoir-style zine about animal encounters.

Before I get carried away, I want to start off with the beginning of this zine, which is very, very sweet. Apples talks about being afraid of meeting new people (I hear you!) and dealing with that fear by seeing them simply as people who haven’t heard the bee-moving story yet.

I thought the concept was a fun and funny (in a good way) way to do things, but I didn’t realise quite how funny until I got into reading about the bees.

And then reading about the goat. Oh, my goodness, that goat.

I struggle to talk about the stories because I enjoyed them so much and don’t want to spoil even the tiniest bit of goodness. The stories are funny on their own, but they are made even funnier for two reasons.

The first comes in having the wisdom of hindsight. I laughed, with empathy, when Apples wondered why they thought a certain move with beehives would be a good idea because it definitely wasn’t.

Right now, typing this, I cannot believe what a stupid idea this is.

Secondly, it’s funnier because Apples has taken tweets made while these things were actually happening and included them in the zine.

I now realise why goats are linked to Satan

Apples also includes recipes, both of which I’d like to try out. But I think what I love most about them is that they are put into the zine when they are mentioned. Even mid-story. Readers might not think one way or another about this, but I really feel like sticking them in like like (as opposed to putting them in their own recipe section or something like that) adds to the ‘chaotic flurry’ that is the feeling when reading about angry bees and even angrier goats. It feels almost like an aesthetic choice to simply put them in as they came up in conversation.

The funniest thing about this zine for me is this: I looked at the back cover before I started reading, and it reads “look forward to vol. 2 where I will talk about chooks”. Now having read the zine, that now takes a hilariously ominous tone.

If you want to have a(n empathic) laugh at tales of semi-domesticated animals, then you are missing out if you don’t check out this zine.

Posted on

Happy Mail Monday – Post-Fever Edition

Hello, zine friends! Welcome back to the blog.

Thank you all for bearing with me. An intense flu/flu-like thing knocked me off my feet Sunday night, and I spent Monday and Tuesday trying desperately to break the fever I had. I’m slowly getting steadier on my feet again, and the fever seems to be gone for good, so onward and upward!

(My brain is still partially melted, though, so don’t be shy about getting in contact about any emails, calls for subs, or anything else I may need reminding about.)

Before I get into the mail, I wanted to say that I hope everyone who attended ZICS Aus over the weekend had an excellent time.

Now for mail!

The first lovely bit of zine mail came from Meeni Levi all the way in Belgium! The zines actually came in a secure little plastic sleeve to protect it from the rigors of international travel. ^_^ We must protect the zines! And did you notice the title of the mini-zine? “Conversation Falafels”. Hehe! You all make it so difficult for me to get anything done because I want to check out your zines straight away!

I had to take a picture of the very, very cool wax seal Meeni put on the envelope. I’ve seen pictures and the like of seals and such, but I think this is either the first time or the first in a long time that I’ve been able to check one out up close. I think I may need to add a wax seal into my bag of happy mail goodies. This looks so cool!

Thank you, Meeni, for trading with me!

Squee! Happy mail from Brazil, and with cute cat sketches, too! And so many stamps!

You may recall Henry and Fafa Jeapelt who generously decided to give me a chance and sent me Catzine 1 and Bluez despite the fact that they are in Portuguese – a language I’m not familiar with. I am so excited to see Catzine 2 as well as a wooden bookmark and a super, super cute drawing of a cat by Fafa!

Thank you so, so much!

That is mail for today my friends. Thank you all again for bearing with me during confusing times (confusing enough with the move let alone with a sudden flu thrown in). Barring any relapse, I will be back tomorrow with a fresh new zine review for you. Big hugs!