Inside Insanity

2003-06-26T09:53:00.000-04:00

Apparently people actually visit this page. o_o; While the idea of someone finding me interesting is rather odd, I feel that I should point out that I probably won't be blogging in the future. I've moved over to livejournal and I doubt I can produce enough interesting babble to fill this blog and that. So, if you're interested in reading more of my ever-so-non-witty commentary head over there. It's be nice to get some post-replies. -_-

2003-05-22T03:32:00.000-04:00

I need more Pretty Face manga. >_> <_< Seriously. *glares at Streamload* Appear, scanlated manga! I said appear! In Aute's inbox! Appear! Please? *sigh*

2003-05-16T19:41:00.000-04:00

Note to everyone on my campus: Standing outside dorm halls yelling makes you seem like a complete dumbass. Please, stop it. And smokers? I hate you and wish you would die. Or, at least, stop standing around talking incredibly loudly to the person two feet away from you at 3 am. Apparently, the cigarettes have damaged your brains as well as your lungs. It may seem petty but, y'know, some of us like to SLEEP and can't do that with you faking orgasms outside. If you absolutely must stand around most nights of the week, try something we call a 'conversational tone'. The person you are talking to is probably not hard of hearing. Think, people. I know it's a lot to ask, but try. It's bad enough I have to deal with all the idiots in my Univ classes. Let me keep some respect for humanity before I become a social worker. I'll lose it soon enough then.
Be quiet or, at least, be loud indoors. Bothering one floor isn't nearly as bad as bothering an entire building. Common sense is your friend.

2003-05-16T19:36:00.000-04:00

Yet another sign that humans haven't really evolved from monkeys: Someone wanted to see a Harry Potter and Naruto cross-over fic enough to post in their blog about it. HP and Naruto. A more cracked crossover pairing I haven't seen since...well, since I took a brief, scared look at the crossover section of fanfiction.net, actually. Which's now down, since I want to read a Naruto fic really badly and can't find any online. -_- Of course, I can barely find any fanfiction online, since I use Google as my search engine and whenever I search for fics I have to sort through about 5 pages of blogs, all of them just some random fangirl babbling about what series and characters she likes. Yay. That's when I give up, since I know that, when I do manage to find fanfics, I'll have to sort through many more pages just to find fics that aren't badly written. Sometimes that makes me wish ff.net still had NC-17 fics up. Then I remember someone wrote NC-17 Calvin and Hobbes fanfiction. That...that's not even wrong. That's far past wrong. Even the idea is soul-searingly horrible. But, anyway, back to my original point. What's wrong with fans? Why on earth would you want Harry Potter, a fun children's book using lots of magic written in a very condescending manner, to be crossed with Naruto, a bloody, death-filled, demon-filled world where Harry would be dead, or posessed, before he could finish saying a spell? Two completely different styles of stories that won't combine well. Unless you just dump them into bad!fanfic style, where you drain all characters of personality and differences. Like nearly every AU or 'this story is set 10/20/however-many years in the future' story in existence. But that would be, well, bad...
That reminds me... Once, a long time ago, I was reading through a seemingly endless 'blahblah years in the future' Naruto fanfic on ff.net and it demonstrated exactly why I hate the genre. The older characters were either unchanged (Naruto), made into a pathetic whiner to their wife but never to the person they're bitching about(Sasuke), or barely there (Hinata & Sakura). I should have known it would be horrible since it was 30+ chapters long and no chapter was more than 2 or 3 pages in Word. Disturbingly large numbers of chapters and chapters sizes under 5 or so pages in Word are just below bad spelling and grammar as indicators of bad fanfiction. The point of an AU or future fic is taking the characters and working them into the setting without destroying their personality. Future fics have the added pain bonus of requiring new characters, the children. Children are very hard to write well since, well, kids are stupid. They're immature and lack knowledge but, since they're usually being written by someone of the same age, end up turning into super geniuses all the adults pale in comparison to. *coughcoughMarrisaPicardcoughyesIlikeStarTrekcough* Plus the fic I was reading made Lee's son incompetent and whiney. Death to the author! And Sasuke's son was obviously supposed to be a younger version of him, only without a brain and with overactive hormones. And Naruto bred a Mary Sue, complete with the requisite horribly, horribly tragic past! (tm) that really isn't so bad after all and is just an excuse for everyone to say 'it's amazing MS got over it so completely since before the fic she was so traumatized but now she's totally fine because writing emotionally scarred characters is really hard'. In short: Future fics rarely work because the fanfic authors aren't as good as the original series creator and they have to try and adapt the story. Very bad. AU fics are bad because, face it, most of the time they're just an excuse for a Mary Sue or to turn the chara into a teenybopper who listens to N'sync or Nirvana. Scary. Very scary.
Well, I'm off to try and find good One Piece fanfiction. Anything decent with lots of Zoro should do. And to see if I can't get the HP-Naru crossover girl to share her drugs with me. Seems like she has the good stuff.

2003-05-13T15:23:00.000-04:00

I just had a very disturbing random moment. I was reading a MST on a site that used 'gai' instead of 'gay'. Never question fangirls, we may explain.I've recently been slogging through my Naruto fic and am just now at a scene with Kakashi and Gai. I wonder why some fansubbers like changing Gai's name to Guy? Anway...I'm in a Naruto mindset, like I've been pretty much since I first watched it, except when I watch One Piece. In my Naruto mindset I never, EVER want to see the phrase 'all the characters were suddenly fucking gai.' That produced the most horrible mental image ever, since that one of Furuba's Akito skipping in a flowery dress singing 'I feel pretty'. It's just wrong. Absolutely wrong. Thank god I wasn't drinking my soda when I read that, I've already lost one keyboard to Dr. Pepper this month. -_-

2003-05-07T15:08:00.000-04:00

After reading fanfiction.net fanfics and non-ff.net fanfics I've determined that there are two classes of fanfic authors out there. One group, generally regarded as preferable and more intelligent, uses grammar and spelling. You can recognize these authors not only by the correct use of apostrophes and punctuation, though comma use varies even among grammarians, and the fact they spell words right even if spell check doesn't catch them, but that you can give their story to a university English teacher and they can read through it without screaming in pain. Plus, they avoid run on sentences like the last one. Then there are those who use grammer and speeling, who believe that correct spelling is what spell check is for and that you can replace a word with any offering from the thesaurus. Since, of course, if the words weren't exactly the same they wouldn't be listed, right? These authors make up the majority of the posters at ff.net and if you give one of these 'works' to an English teacher you may actually make them cry. Certainly, they will wonder what they've done to deserve being subjected to such a mutilation of the English language. However, many seem to enjoy this style. (Extremely biased editorial comment: 'Many' here seems to be synonymous with 'morons'). There wouldn't be so many butt-kissing reviews of grammer using fics at ff.net if there wasn't.
Ultimately, the question is which category an author falls in. Do you want to use grammar and possibly win accolades from the oft-harsh intelligentsia of fanfic readers? Be warned, if you do, that many fanfic readers hold fan fiction at even higher standards than they do original works. After all, you don't have to come up with the characters or worlds, so that leaves you more energy for perfecting your style, no? Or, on the other hand, do you want to use grammer and never have to worry about that ever-annoying proofreading thing? True, much of the fan fiction community will look down on you as an undereducated or middle-school fangirl (or fanboy, perhaps, but in the fanfic circles I move [stealthily] in, authors are usually considered fangirls until mentioned otherwise. Yaoi tends to be gender biased, after all) but you'll never feel a sense of shame for your works (unless you graduate to the grammar class later, in which case you want all your grammer work to be easily buried and never seen again). You may even have a giant horde of fierce fans who will gladly tear apart anyone who condemns your lack of technical ability. You will be the boy band of fanfic authors.
Just don't let your English teachers see your work. It so disrupts the class schedule when a teacher drops dead of a stress-induced heart attack mid-semester, after all.

2003-05-05T15:18:00.000-04:00

Streamload 2.0, now suckier than ever. Does anyone actually prefer this version to the old one? I'm pissed because they got rid of the option I like. I want 10 gigs of downloads a month. I don't want 15, that's too much, but I don't want just 5. I get some of my fansubs that way and when you're downloading 170-200 mb files, those gigs add up FAST. Add onto it the fact I've been getting myself hooked on new series and trying to get all I can... gah. @_@ If you add the evil that is new streamload, with the pure and spiteful evil that is my LAN and Internet Explorer... God, I hate the internet sometimes.

2003-04-24T12:41:00.000-04:00

The problem with having anime calendars is that, since they're Japanese, they don't have American holidays on them and I can never remember the date of anything. Which means I would've forgotten about mothers day if I hadn't been reminded...Very bad of me. I may not have much money to get gifts, but I should at least remember. Even if it is just an artificial creation by a company.

2003-04-22T16:49:00.000-04:00

Random Yaoi couples generator ...scary, yet amusing. Be wary of the link though, your reactions to couples may scare you. I had to berate myself after my first response to the Tsuzuki (seme) and Ken (uke) pair, 'Ooh! Pretty!'. Though, to make up for it, the generator keeps trying to scare me. Muraki/Ryuuichi? Poor Ryuuichi would never stand a chance. The most horrifying has to be Akito/Hiei though because it's wrong on so many levels I can barely stand to contemplate it. And, no matter how horrifying, you just KNOW some ff.net fangirl is going to look, squeal, think they'd look great together and then write something up for it. Who cares if they aren't even in the same series, or time period or planet, they're pretty together! There's a reason I fear Alternative Universe (AU) fics. As a whole they are complete and utter crap. Though there are a couple good ones, but you'd expect that from such a prolific genre. AU's suffer from the fact that changing the background changes the personality of a person so people either have to use plot contrivances to make the characters background the same or change them. And, if you're going to have them the same, why not just keep them in their original universe? Mainly, those AU's are just to introduce some Mary Sue-type character or, god help us, put everyone in high school. That works for things like, say, Gundam Wing where the boys are all the right age but still...overdone at best. And those that change their personalities tend to turn them into boring stereotypes. We read fanfics to read about the canon charas, not some random person with their name. And, of course, heaven save us from those who try to do the first one but end up doing the second because they can't write the character, or any, in some cases, in the first place. Bad fanfics... Agh. @_@
Fanfiction.net, destroying your belief in human intelligence one 'story' at a time.

Edit note: I couldn't resist the chance to see a couple more pairs and got Dilandau (Escaflowne)/Dark Mousy (DNAngel). That would be a great parody fic, with Dilandau changing genders every couple paragraphs and Dark switching between himself and Daisuke. Hee. ^_^ And then I got Ayame (Fruits Basket)/Subaru (Tokyo Babylon). I guess Subaru, having been burned by Seishirou, decided to go for the male version of his sister? And then I got Daisuke (DNAngel)/ Farfello (Weiss Kruez) and hurt my mind again. That's just wrong, people. Really, just...argh.

2003-04-20T03:50:00.000-04:00

There's nothing quite like starting a series and getting into the flow of things, liking what is there but, perhaps even more so, liking the potential the series holds. Knowing that the author can, with their next book, spend more time polishing the marvelous worlds and characters they have created and producing something even better than what you've just finished. Nothing like going through a series and discovering that, in reality, after several good runs the author clearly runs out of creativity or steam or whatever you want to call it and is now producing absolute drivel. Avid readers will know what I'm talking about. If you read often, it's only a matter of time before you come across a series of books that, while very good at first, should have been cut off partway through, for the good of everyone. Many people probably feel this about the Star Wars franshise right now; that they should have just left it at the first (or second, whatever) trilogy and never, ever produced Episode 1. Two is a bit better, but not enough, IMHO, to makeup for the bore-fest that is one. The book series I feel this most strongly for is the Anita Blake series. The first few books are filled with promise and the possibility that Anita can get over her fascination with describing her scars and that pathetic wanna-be Jean Claude and become a kick-arse heroine. And then she turns in Avatar!Anita, Mary Sue incarnate, the ultimate in 'perfection', and I can't evne bother to read all the later books. Jean Claude = Sad, wanna-be vampire. Richard = Whiny, angsty & pathetic. Anita = Annoyance. Edward = Cool, but not quite psychopathic enough to make up for everyone else. Strangely enough, one of the fanfic series that I've seen done very well is a cross between Anita Blake and Gundam Wing, an unholy duo (hee ^-^ Unintentional punnage) that should be horribly awful and, yet, is better than either of its sources. Well, better than the Blake series and fandom Gundam Wing. I can't really claim that it's better than the series, though rewatching has called the quality of the series into doubt in my mind. But...er...what was i talking about again?
Oh yes. Series that go bad. Currently, I'm staring in wonder as a once good Gundam Wing fic (Don't laugh! There are a few good GW fics out there, amongst the polific hideousness) that has turned into Days of Our Lives. I swear, everything in the current story, which is the 4th and just as epic as its prequels, reads like it came from a soap opera during sweeps month. They have all the common plot contrivances: the Major Illness to Bring a Family Back Together and Provide Lots of Angst, the She's Too Good For Me So I'll Push Her Away, the Sudden Regaining of Memories Hidden for Many Many Years, the My Adoptive Family is Too Good for Me so I'll Push Them Away, the Fanatics Killing Sympathetic Members of a Very Brutal Race (Who Just Happen to Have Been Very Very Old Friends of the Family), and, of course, the Wow! So We Grew Up Together All Those Years Ago Until Something Tragic Happened to Split Us Up and Made Us Forget and We've Been Beside Each Other For Years Without Knowing, Except the One Guy Who Just Never Said Anything, and Now We All Know Thanks to the Script Gods? plot contrivances. That last wasn't good in Final Fantasy 8 and it isn't good here. Nothing ruins a story like those wacky 'We were all together years ago but just forgot' plot contrivances. It's never done well and it rarely adds anything to the plot, other than an easy similarity to bond over. I finally gave up on FF8 ever having any semblence of decency when it was revealed that everyone but Rinoa, including Cid AND the villain, just happened to grow up in the same orphanage (and Laguna has rather close ties to Squall and the orphanage as well). Except Rinoa. Which explains why she's so stupid, really...
But...the story... I've rather liked the three previous stories in this series. They aren't the best but, hey, sometimes something a bit less polished is just what you want to read. Something simple and nice. But, now, it's become soap opera hell. Every new chapter reveals some new plot contrivance it seems. The reporter from Earth sent to investigate the killings just happens to be tied to the really sick character and to have watched over him even though, gasp!, he doesn't know her at all. Wanna bet that she will have the same basic genetics, and thus be able to cure him? Wanna tell me who she is and why I should care? Doesn't matter, that'll be revealed next week, I'm sure. On the next episode of Days with Our Gundams, same AC time, same AC channel.

(And yes, I realize I've digressed quite alot from my point about series gone bad but, hey, it's 3:30 am, I just got back from work a half hour ago, and I've been playing Dark Cloud 2 all day. Plus, well, when have I ever failed to digress? And why am I bothering to justify this to myself. Meh...Back to taking pictures of random landscape features, I guess.)

2003-04-18T12:54:00.000-04:00

I was just looking at the animemusicvideos.org stats thing for most used artists and noticed that there are 848 mvids using Linkin Park songs. The next highest is System of a down with 232. That's insane. And all the more reason I will never, ever, make a music video using a Linkin Park song, no matter how much I love the group. And there are 2,218 mvids using Dragonball Z (At least, that's the combined total of the two popular variants of the name), with a whole lot more for Dragonball GT. Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop AND Trigun would all have to be combined to overpower the DBZ Mvids, and if I see another mvid of those at a convention I'm going to scream. There should be a rule, no more than two videos per series per con, and only one for videogames. There just aren't enough cutscenes in more of them, and even in 10 it'd be a stretch. Thankfully the newness has worn off those series so we're less likely to be bombarded by videos but...agh... I don't believe in making a vid to a popular series unless it's extremely well planned (and good) and to a song no one's used for that series. The closest I hope to come to making an mvid for an overly popular series is my Fruits Basket one, which had to be made because I adore FB with all my heart...And now I have to run to class, so I'll stop babbling. Whee, I'm running! I'm running! (Or not...Invader Zim can be a bad influence)

2003-04-11T12:50:00.000-04:00

Upon reflection I've determined that it was a bad plan not to pick up any painkillers other than Tylenol PM, which knocks me for a loop everytime unless I'm, say, laying in bed. Then I just want to play games. This is particularly true since I'm a female and will have at least one day of pain a month. I'm so smart. Goes to show that just because you get a 1300 on your SATs doesn't mean you have a brain. Of course, this blog demonstrates that too...

2003-04-09T17:51:00.000-04:00

I've been reading fanfics, and yelling at them, on fanfiction.net for far too long and have developed a question that I'm just burning to ask many of the 'authors' there. How hard can it be that hard to write coherently? You can't all be middle schoolers. And don't most people know that writing a story is really just putting a verbal story on paper? I knew a person who had no problems holding his own in conversations but, when writing, would suddenly act like English was his second, and not-well-known, language (Not to insult those who've mastered more than one language. This, as I've learned in language classes, is an incredibly hard feat to accomplish). And he was a Junior in high school, who has since graduated. The fact that I, who know only the basics of grammar, could look at his stories and immediately see that it needed massive rewriting before it could be considered readable, scared me. The sentence structure was awkward and punctuation optional. Can you even get to middle school without realizing the importance of punctuation and well constructed sentences? The American school system isn't that shabby, is it?
Grammar is generally fairly optional and not very well taught so we can expect people to miss the finer points of things, like comma use and the fact that, apparently, whatever comes immediately after speech is still part of the sentence. Like, "I should've known better." he said. is apparently correct while "I should've known better." He said. is technically wrong. I never learned that in school, not even in my college level creative writing course. I don't like knowing this, since I use the incorrect style and that's a surprisingly difficult change to make. But, back to my question... How hard is it to realize that if you have a whole bunch of dialogue in the same paragraph without any speaker attributions no one will be able to follow what is being said by whom? How hard is it to read back through your story, or even just use a grammar check, to discover the fact that you keep leaving out entire words. Important words. Words that need to be there if you don't want your reader to stop and stare and play 'fill in the blanks'. Is it truly so hard to notice that, when reading stories, many of them having paragraph breaks between lines spoken by different people? Do bad fic writers really only read each others bad fics? How about the bad fic writers for a written series?
I was looking at ff.net today and noticed a Naruto fic that, besides being a badly characterized Mary Sue, reflected the authors belief that the best way to make sure people knew where scenes ended was by having each scene be one overly long paragraph. Even if there was lots of dialogue, which there was. Paragraphing can be hard, yes, but to that extent? And the punctuation and capitalization were off as well, though it should be noted that, from the bits I read, they seemed to recognize the need to tell us who's speaking. But, still, how can these people be making such basic errors and never be corrected by their English teachers? Or, if they are being corrected, why are they still passing? Did they somehow forget that the rules they learned for English papers apply to stories? I asked a friend of mine this the other day and they couldn't answer the questions, as many as there are, either. Maybe you, reader-type-person, could help here. Cast some light upon this quandry.
I'd ask one of the offending authors themself but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to understand the response. Except maybe the part where they insult me and my ancestry for daring to insult them, their wonderous writing skills, and the glorious magnificence that is their absolutely-not-Mary-Sue and absolutely-definitely-wonderful story (As all their little friends agree, showing how evil and wrong I am)...On second thought, that may be kind of fun, or at least a good laugh for me and my friends. Hmm...

Edit: Hmm, the Naruto fic in question has disappeared. I checked yesterday and there had been five comments between the time I looked at it and posted on it and then (not terribly long). I couldn't see the reviews since it said the story was missing. And now it's gone. I'm torn between feeling guilty for potential harm to the author and feeling like an idiot for assuming that it was my post that made a difference. I'm leaning toward the latter, really. If it was the first I hope that the author's just taking it down to work on it so s/he can post it again and point out how much better it is now that it's been worked on. Or something like that. Criticism is important, especially for such basic things as paragraphing, however I do not believe in criticism aimed specifically at an author and think criticism should be non-harmful to emotions. Unless the author is the type who takes all criticism personally, then it can't be helped. But that's why I like Slap the the Head and the Bitchcave over MST-style commentaries. The first two make sure to seperate the author from the fic and offer constructive criticism, the third usually doesn't. Oh, and I've fixed a few of my own errors in the original post. Seems rather hypocritical to complain about others not getting the basics down when I type in 'their' instead of 'there'. That's not quite at the level I'm complaining about but, y'know, glass houses and such. Which is why I'm not complaining about spelling errors in fics...

2003-04-08T17:51:00.000-04:00

Interesting...If I'm normal, what are the others like?

Normal Fan

What Kind of a Hentai Yaoi Freak are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

2003-04-06T14:36:00.001-04:00

What is it with people (primarily men, I've noticed) and gigantic breasts? Do men actually think that they're sexy? I was looking at The Onion today and off to the side I noticed an ad for a site which mentioned it carried hentai (perverted) manga and doujinshi (fancomics) and showed an example, a cover with two girls draped over each other and breasts were not just far larger than their heads, but appeared to be larger, individually, than the rest of their upper body. It was scary! Their thighs were strangely large too, giving them the appearance that someone had turned on a 'tiny head' option. You know, how in some fighting games you can make their heads smaller and marvel at how strange it looks? I dislike doujinshi (commonly refered to as dj or doujin) as a whole because I'm fairly picky about what art styles I like and, quite frankly, few people can combine good writing and good art. In doujin, usually either the art looks strange or the story reads like something off of fanfiction.net. Or both. But what really cued this little rant is the strangely common habit of male artists making their female characters with humongous breasts. This seems to be more common in America than Japan, where the female characters tend to look disturbingly young; the country suffers from a national Lolita complex, it seems. But Americans seem to prefer that their women have breasts so large they will make FF7's Tifa feel inferior. Breasts so large that the women will never be able to move without outside assistance and will end up in a wheelchair before they're fourty. Ooh, sexy! But, of course, human tastes don't account for factors like healthiness and ability to move, or we'd be idolizing plump people, not models. But who decided that bigger breasts are better? Probably the same kind who make games like Dead or Alive. I played the first DoA and had to stop my game so I could turn the breast bouncing option off. Because when that first stage, with two female characters, loaded I automatically crossed my arms over my chest and winced in sympathy. I figured the girls were only fighting each other so they could get the whole ordeal over with. Plus, smacking each other around probably hurt less than what their chests were doing. Rapidly bouncing breasts are uncomfortable, men. Women wear bras for more reasons than just testing how good you are with your hands.
As a woman, I simply cannot understand this fascination. In the past, small breasts used to be the style, which was understandable because that's realistic. You can find a woman with small, pert breasts. But finding an Anna Nicole Smith is much harder. Why do we idealize female images that are impossible obtain or even come close to without pain and suffering of health? Do we really look down on women so much that their pain isn't an issue?

2003-04-06T10:28:00.000-04:00

Whee! The DNAngel anime is out! If you have bittorent, you can find it here. I like AJ, they've been putting out Spiral as well. And...actually...that's it. ^_^ Ja ne!

Comment after actually watching it: Hiwatari is so gay. My poor yaoi-sense is in danger of overloading again. Krad didn't help much either...

2003-04-04T13:35:00.000-05:00

The #1 sign that should never be in a doctor's office: To err is human, to forgive divine.

2003-04-03T12:57:00.000-05:00

Agh! I apologize to everyone waiting for the latest installment of False Impressions, or any of my other fics, but my muses have been hijacked. First for a Naruto fic I'm writing, and Naruto has stolen my soul from CLAMP, at least for now, and now for a bunch of music videos. I've made a Naruto music video (to Sum 41's Still Waiting) and a Fruits Basket video (to Matchbox 20's Bent) and now I'm going to be making a Full Moon o Sagashite mvid to Creed's Stand Here With Me. I really wish inspiration would strike elsewhere, this is getting tiresome. I'm busy and these videos take hours to days to make (though, thanks to my inspiration, they go relatively quickly). PLus I only have a 20 gig harddrive which's full of stuff and Full Moon is currently 50 eps long. @_@ Help me! But really... 'On and on we sing... on and on we sing... *repeat for almost a minute*' fits the series far too well. It is overly long. And the rest of the song could be a warm and fuzzy Takuto/Mitsuki thing. Yay!

2003-03-23T17:22:00.000-05:00

There are a number of things wrong with this war with Iraq and the most unbelievably selfish of them is the fact that I'm stuck at home where the only TV I can use to play games is tuned to the war. -_- I should've brought my TV back, but it would'vebeen an incredibly hard sell bringing that and my comp. And I don't even like leaving my computer for thanksgiving break. I'm such a nerd... It'd be easy if it was something trivial and I could complain to my parents and get them to turn it off but, y'know, it's a war. And that's kind of important. Even to cynical, strangely bitter people like me.
Strangely enough the games I have an urge to play are FFX and Xenogears, which I've just read a number of complaints about. Why does everyone seem to hate FFX now? That game was fun. It didn't have the greatest replay value but it is good. And why do I want to play FFX-2 now, even though I think the costumes are hideous? Maybe I'm hoping Yuna will display the latent coolness she had in FFX but buried under her martyr facade. Or maybe I'm just hoping Auron will show up again. Mmm, Auron... On a seemingly unrelated note, toastyfrog says everything I care to about Xenosaga only in a more entertaining fashion and if you want to decide to play the game or not head to Project X, download the first two movies and see if you can stand them. Personally, I want to strangle Shion, which means that I'll hate this game. But, I've always had a grudge against 'useless' female characters and Shion is pretty much the embodiment of everything I hate. Maybe she'll improve if she'll just shut up about the whole 'How can you treat realians so? So what if they're mass produced, artificial robots who feel only the emotions they were programmed to and who were created to serve humans. They're human!...Only, y'know, not.' And, quick question, why is it KOS-MOS has weapons to kill the Gnosis while no one else on the ship does? Is it just me or is that stupid?

2003-03-19T15:21:00.000-05:00

*squees happily* It came! Galerians: ASH arrived and, if it's anywhere near as good as the first one, that means I'm going to have an enjoyable evening. Especially since Rion's now older and a hottie. He was cute when he was younger but...eh... hopefully the game will be as fun as the original. I rarely like games like this but the story of the first one sucked me in. I even liked Lilia. The ending, when I finally managed to get to it, depressed me horribly. Hopefully I'll manage to get to the end of this one without too much screaming about unfair bosses. And hopefully there will be no Cain. Bondage!Rion scares me. Especially since he was so young. Bad images. Might not be so bad, in this game but...eh. The whole black leather look tends to be more creepy then sexy. If the game is good look forward to the fact I won't be ranting about Xenosaga in the near future. If it's bad...well, maybe I'm more entertaining when I'm bitching about something. That wouldn't be anything new, really.

2003-03-19T05:12:00.000-05:00

I'm writing a paper for english (the only reason I'm up so late. >_< Why must I procrastinate so?) and the target length is 1000 words. My last paper was a bit under. This time I'm doing schizophrenia and concentrating only on the symptoms. That's it. No causes, no treatment, just the defining symptoms. My intro and body are supposed to be one half the paper with my case-study-discussion thing the other half. Currently, with an incomplete intro and the possibiilty of having to add more subheadings, I'm at 1,183 words. o_o Oh my...editting this one is going to be FUN, I can just tell.

BTW, if you're looking for commentary from me that displays actual intelligence, check out my livejournal page. I'm part of an lj RP and it's almost scary how easy it is to imagine what an IC Honda Tohru would say. o_o This also explains why I've been blogging so often in the past few days, if you're curious. It's no coincidence that I started posting here more when I started posting there. Organizing my thoughts into posts isn't as hard as I sometimes think and over here I don't have to worry too much about things like witty insights and characterization.

2003-03-18T23:47:00.000-05:00

Minor Xenosaga spoilers follow...

Dear god, Xenosaga's heroine Shion is SUCH a Mary Sue it's scary. I'm watching Onegai Studios Project X, Xenosaga in episodic form, and the mind-numbingly slow pace has allowed me ample time to stare in horror at Shion, who is apparently trying to encompass all the bad characterization cliches out there. And the fact she looks like she's 12 isn't helping. I'm sure that's more because of the Japanese Lolita-complex tendencies than any MSism but it's still bothering me. At least the overly pretty scientist stereotypes in all the bad American movies look old enough to be respected scientists. Shion looks like she should be doing Chemistry homework.
Now, think of all the bad MS cliches you can. I've only seen an hour of the game cutscenes, episodes 00 and 01, but she's hitting as many as she can without, you know, letting any actual action happen. Other than a brief VR series of random battles all that's happened is some funky floaty block thing has been found, some enemies are going to arrive in the future, KOS-MOS isn't getting anywhere because Shion's being all mother hen-ly and trying to avoid having to actually make it work, and Shion is seeing visions of Elly(Or whoever that kid is). Woo! This game rivals Dragonball Z for bad pacing. Anyway...Shion's been steadily hitting every MS cliche ever. First, she's extra-super-special because despite her (apparently) young age she's the Chief of the division working on KOS-MOS (not just a scientist there, but the Chief. Not that that position would be carefully selected and given to the member of the organization with the highest level of experience and respect, nah. We have Mary Shion! Plus, all the other scientists look no older than 30, if that. No wonder they're behind.) She also solves a situation an older, and presumably more experienced and more specifically trained, man in an entirely other devision can't handle. And that whole bit isn't even important, except to show how special she is. She does things even 'specialized counselors have a hard time' doing and she's thinking of transferring out of the First Devision of R&D, which is incredibly hard to get into and contains only the best researchers because...er... Well, apparently she wants to work with Third Division and her family teases her. Wait...if the first division has the best researchers, why is she the Chief? She's so special... She also has no real personality, being all quiet and feminine and forgetful and modest and vapid. She considers robots/androids to be people (though she seems to have no problems messing with their programming). She insists that they're emotional beings just like humans (as they tell her that they only feel the emotions they're programmed with). Marvel at her inconsistencies. Her subordinate wants to date her but, in another bad cliche, just can't work up the courage. She gets menaced by a C-grade villain-types who call her on her lack of brains. How dare they! She has the requisite tragic past with the homeworld that was destroyed and dead parents and a brother who, supposedly, never considers her feelings and...arg, I swear, this is just painful. All I've seen so far is characterization I'd expect from fanfiction.net writers. It wouldn't be so bad if something would just HAPPEN. But, unless OS has been cutting out all the interesting parts, it's been one hour of sheer boredom. According to the spoiler-free guide I glanced at, though, they haven't. I'm hoping that the enemy fleet (or whatever) that's supposed to be arriving in the next epi will destroy them all and end my pain. Or that the scriptwriters will get over the idea that cutting off scenes and having charas withold crucial information just because is actually a good thing. It isn't. It's something second-rate storywriters use when they can't think of a good way to prolong conflict but need to fill space...
I so can't wait for Toastyfrog to rip this apart. It's even more cathartic to see someone else shredding plots like these, since I can be sure that it isn't just my own bitchiness at work. ^_^ Niceness has its place, but not here. Good thing I watched these before buying the game. At least Elly was interesting. In the first disk, before she went all overly moral and turned into a religious figure wanna-be. Shion doesn't even have that. The voices are nice though and the game is pretty. If the pace ever picks up this may turn into a keeper. You'll probably find out either way, as I either rant or am forced to eat my worlds. Time shall tell...
question: Why is blogger acting up today? Is it just in a particularly bad fight with my LAN and it's overactive firewall or what?

2003-03-18T14:36:00.000-05:00

Romanizing Japanese names can be quite complicated. For long o sounds do you use just o or ou? For example, we spell Tokyo...er... Tokyo. Technically, the Japanese write it Toukyou (since o and ou sound different). It's just commonly written Tokyo since that's the American pronunciation. But if you look at the hiragana it's 'to' 'u' 'kyo' 'u'. Today is 'kyo' 'u'. Sometimes people even use h, such as Tohru instead of Touru or Toru. That is technically impossible, if you're going straight from hiragana/katakana, since there IS no lone h. Any use of h in japanese is followed by a vowel while u has it's own little symbol (like all the vowels). Now, normally this doesn't matter. People who watch anime know that they'll find any amount of spellings - Soujirou, Sojiro, Sohjiroh. Heck, I even made a mistake when making the addy for my site and spelled it 'Soujiro'. Apparently I couldn't decide. But, while it doesn't normally matter, I don't like it when people correct the use of the ou, saying it's wrong. Smartania is a good site but there are a couple mistakes I noticed. In the Weiss Kruez fic they MST'd it was implied that the spelling 'Youji' was wrong. (at least, I think that's what the EPK rage-note was about.) It isn't. Youji is technically correct and, in my Japanese class, Yohji would be wrong. Now, some styles teach it as Yohji not Youji but, as I said, in my class and looking at the hiragana symbols (katakana is the same basically, the symbols just look different. Because the Japanese figured 1 alphabet wasn't hard enough) it should be Youji. And then in the Sarcastic Escaflowne guide they say it's Merle, not Merlulu. That is impossible in Japanese, no matter what system it was tought under. R and L are interchangeable, so it could be Merlulu or Meruru, but you will never find r without a vowel after it. In fact, the only consonant that ever goes without a vowel is n. That's it. No h, no r, nothing but n/m (again, interchangeable. Though only when standing alone. If followed by a vowel, ex 'ma' or 'na', they're very different. So it cannot be Merle, from the Japanese at least. The American companies may use Merle but, then again, I'm watching Naruto and one group romanized Gai's name as Guy, since that's how it is pronounced, never mind how it's spelled in Japanese. And, though these may seem like picky details, it's just because it bothers me when people correct this sort of thing. Just because you use Merle or Yohji doesn't make Merlulu or Youji wrong. Technically, at least. :\ Of course, I do use Americanized names for characters. Zelgadis from Slayers, for example. That's impossible. Zerugadisu is possible, not not Zelgadis, but I use Zelgadis so I may not have the right to rant but...for some reason the fact that they were being corrected for this bothered me... I guess I'm in a picky mood today.
Sidenote: Upon checking out that Escaflowne thing I've decided the point they're making is American fans should use the American spelling (or something like that). But, really, there's no reason to correct Meruru. As far as I know, it's technically correct. Even if Merle does look nicer. And the MST thing might've been a rage-note over the idea that Youji flirts with girls over 18. But...eh... Like I said, it's a good site, just a couple of little picky things. And the fact the MSTs generally move from constructive mockery/criticism into outright offensiveness. :|

2003-03-17T12:39:00.000-05:00

I had a random mental image today. I was getting ready for school and listening to Fatboy Slim's Weapon of Choice and thinking how the song wasn't quite the same without Walken dancing around a hotel lobby when, suddenly, I got a mental image of Hatake Kakashi, from Naruto, dancing about instead of Walken. o_o; I blame the Naruto fic I've been trying to write. It was still an amusing image. I could almost see him doing it too, with Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto gaping at him in the background. Sasuke would probably recover first, say something like 'I can't believe this idiot's my teacher' and stalk off, followed by Sakura 'Sasuke~! Wait for me!'. Naruto would either chase after Sakura or start dancing himself, I can't decide. God help us if Gai was around. ^_^ 'Lee!' 'Yes, sensei?' 'We must not lose!' 'Yes, sensei!' 'Let us show them the power of youth!' 'Yes!'
Silly randomness but it entertained me during my otherwise dull intro to drama class.

2003-03-12T17:54:00.000-05:00

One thing fanfic writers (including myself) should keep in mind: Men do not giggle. Giggling is an innately feminine act. Giggling is 'to laugh with repeated short catches of breath' (from the Mirriam-Webster dictionary). Giggling tends to be high pitched, where laughter is loud. Chuckling is quiet and short. Women tend to be more breathy than men, since it's sexier for us to do it than them. More culturally accepted as well. I could see all but the most serious woman giggling, it isn't just a cheerleader and schoolgirl trait, but it is not something men do. Well, not normally. o_o;
Just like how men do not cause their shirts/jackets to slide off their shoulders to act sexy. It isn't sexy when a guy does that, it's just sloppy. Doing that draws attention to the shoulder and chest area and, thus, the breasts, for women. Which makes it a sexy move. If a woman is going to stare at a man's covered chest you'd better bet she'll be doing it no matter what's going on with his coat. Unless he can find a way to make his pants slide down a bit while still remaining decent, no amount of clothing movement will make him more attractive.
And, in general, men have no problems seeing each other naked (at least in sanctioned places, like school locker rooms and gyms. Seeing a naked guy in their bed will make any man react. The question is how? ^_-) . They may have a problem with self-esteem that makes them embarassed to be seen naked but being naked around other guys is not a huge deal for most men. If it was, sports teams would have to do some massive revisions of their shower and locker rooms. If you're a female author and you want to think how the men in your story would react to something another guy does first try to think of how you would respond if another female was doing it. And then translate for the differences between male behavior and personality and things, of course. But, slash and yaoi fans, keep in mind that if male A sees Male B naked he isn't going to get all hot and bothered over it and think about it for very long, unless he's already lusting over him.
Oh and also, sex is very, very uncomfortable the first time. For everyone. It's all well and go to 'romantacize' things but you can deal with this minor issue and still keep things romantic. At least then it won't cause anyone with even a basic understanding of biology to have a little sarcastic voice in there head saying 'Riiight. So virgin boy just got royally topped and he barely even notices it? masochism in action!'. And if you're writing straight fics, this rule applies for women too. Do some research, find out what a hymen is. It can only help you. And another note yaoi writers: Unless the boys are extremely, shall we say, experienced, lube is a necessity, not an option. And even if they are experienced, it ought to be there. Humans were not designed with this sort of recreational activity in mind, more's the pity.
OK, so that's several pieces of advice, but they do all make sense. And you'd be amazed how many people forget them. I'm reading a fic now where Shigure, from Fruits Basket, has giggled three times in two paragraphs. Men do not giggle, even pranksters. Heck, I doubt even Ayame would actually giggle. Please, try and keep your male characters male. (Unless they're like Fushigi Yuugi's Nuriko. o_o But Hotohori wouldn't giggle, no matter how pretty he is.)

2003-03-11T21:27:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting watching the Fruits Baskets fansubs I have (gotten before it came out officially) and I noticed something. BakaMX romanized the first line of the ending, at least in the first few epis, as tanoshii uke (fun dinner). Which by itself isn't so bad, except that I didn't think uke was the word for dinner. (I later saw it romanized as Yuuge, my Japanese book says ban-gohan) The thought of uke meaning dinner has its own implications for any yaoi fan, but tanoshii uke? Fun uke? Whenever I see that line my mind goes into hentai overdrive. Doesn't help that it's a show about a huge group of sexy young men who can't have normal relationships with women. ^_^ I'm so sick sometimes... It's fun!

2003-03-11T10:59:00.000-05:00

Another question, this time for online store owners/operators/whatever: If you discover that there has been some kind of problem with the credit card info a customer has given you on an order what do you do? A) Contact that person and ask them to send you the correct info or B) Sit on your butt hoping they'll eventually contact you and, instead of canceling the order in the face of your mass stupidity, fix the info? Which may or may not prompt you to actually send them the item, depending on how much you hate the world that day. Ebworld.com, I'm looking at you. After 12 days you only told me what was wrong because I sent an email. Try a bit harder and you may reach the level of Sears.

Later note: Well, they have redeemed themselves somewhat. Apparently it's been shipped already (I only called them about 2 o'clock). But they still acted stupidly.

2003-03-10T12:17:00.000-05:00

I have a question for the people who make/install elevators: Do you deliberately design them to be the stupidest machines on earth? Do you hate us, or something, that you make machines that act as if 'processing power' was a foreign word? Today, as I returned to my building, I noticed the positions of the elevators. When I came in elevator 1 was on the first floor and elevator 2 was on the sixth. I walked over to his the button and, of course, elevator 1 moved, because it hates me. It always moves. That elevator never liked me. Anyway, so it moves. I glare at it, knowing what's coming. It's happened before. I hit the button though, and elevator 2 starts down. Elevator 1 eventually stops at...you guessed it, the sixth floor. Where elevator 2 had been WAITING for something to happen. It wasn't moving at all, it was just stopped there. So, having one elevator already at the damn floor, and another at the very bottom of the building, it pulled the first one up. Obviously. Because the people on the sixth floor don't want to get on quickly, and who would ever expect someone to come in on the first floor? Sadly, this is a common thing. What massively brain damaged individual designed these systems? It isn't a matter of saving effort either. All the control thingy had to do was recognize there was a second elevator and, in fact, it was on the required floor. But no. And, as I said, this isn't anything new. It happens all the time. Because elevators are designed by monkeys. And not very intelligent monkeys at that.
Now I get to go reserve tickets for a play I don't want to see, but have to pay attention to and write about anyway, and yell at the ebworld people because the game I ordered on the 27th of last month still hasn't even shipped. Then I have 3 more hours of class, only 1 of which will be interesting. >_< Oh, how I hate mondays. But really...what's up with elevators? I've never met anyone who'd seen an elevator that acted intelligently. It can't be that hard.

2003-03-07T22:22:00.000-05:00

Here's an interesting quiz, What kind of Uke is best suited for you?
Apparently I want Tsuzuki. o_o Explains why I like Yami no Matsuei. ^_^

You need a Balanced Boy!!!

2003-03-07T02:06:00.000-05:00

Philosophy and Psychology must be a very dangerous combination of interests. Philosophy, at least, the philosphy I'm familiar with, tells us that all we can really be certain of is what we can observe by ourselves and/or our introspections. Psychology teaches us that our senses are inherently flawed and that introspection is horribly unreliable. So, combining the two, we cannot be sure of anything, including our own existence, because we don't have the requisite proof to show that we do, in fact, exist to be trying to prove our existence. o_o Of course, all this is of absolutely no practical use. Whether the world and I exist or not, I'm still hearing those absolute morons outside who feel that, despite standing about 3 feet from each other, they can't possibly hear each other unless they speak incredibly loudly. I will never smoke, since it means I'll have to be around those fools. -_- Yet another example of making a good choice for a bad reason. Hey, it's better that then running downstairs and screaming 'it's two am, shut the f--- up!'. That'll just encourage them. I suppose it isn't so bad. At least they've stopped faking orgasms. o_o; College life is so strange.

2003-03-06T18:46:00.000-05:00

I'm apparently only 33% geek (as determined here). That's just normal, all-around geeky stuff though. I'm sure my anime geek ratings would be MUCH higher. Of course, I've known for awhile I don't qualify as a geek. I can't stand D&D and I prefer David Eddings to Tolkein. Sure, Tolkein created a much more complex world, but I find Eddings to have a more interesting writing style. And in books, that matters. And neither series has had a true movie made from it yet, as my father will tell you. The second movie is more a case of really bad (and incredibly dull) fanfiction brought to life. Oh well, at least I get to see my poncy, blond elfboys. However, I can't consider myself a geek. D&D and Tolkein are basic requirements of geekdom, right up there with having no love life or, in fact, life at all...Hey, I am 33% there. Guess that means my brother is pure dork. o_o Heh.
And now for something completely different...
I've been watching Witch Hunter Robin lately. I downloaded eps 1-3 then moved ahead to 20-26 (because I got them off bittorent and thus didn't waste my streamload resources). Upon watching ep 20 I realized that, at least in that epi, there was nothing terribly important I could not guess at or was not recapped. Everyone was still the same, the plot was still stuck at glacial pacing, and I now have no reason to watch everything in between. And that Robin is hopelessly passive. I'm not sure if she's truly pathetic but, for gods sake, if this girl was any more passive she'd be deceased. She bores me to death and the other characters aren't helping. They're all equally bland and apathetic. Wolf's Rain has this problem too. Maybe I just can't appreciate the finer points of long, drawn out (melo)drama. Poor me. I'll stick with Naruto, which has *finally* gotten past that godforsaken Mist Country arc. I never thought I'd hate that arc but, dammit, when they drag the fights out to the point where they're standing around thinking half the time... Ugh. Pain...
The anime companies are really pissing me off now. X TV really, really needed at least one more season. At least. But no, instead they showed that the movie taught them nothing, and made it far too short. Joy. Then we have Full Moon o Sagashite which would work as, say, 13 episodes or maybe 26, but instead has 52 and by now I want to strangle Mitsuki. Almost as much as Relena (and that's saying something). We get about 13 episodes in the Mist Country in Naruto and one episode for Seishirou's side story and the Rainbow bridge scene in X TV (yes, I'm still bitter. Subaru, the ever boring angst king, got an entire episode for his side story [Summary: He walked and fought some stuff and had no expression. And, yes, his life sucks...action? Who needs action? What is this facial expression thing people going on about?] and Seishirou gets nothing? >_<). What the hell are those anime producers smoking? The same thing that made the Rurouni kenshin people make about a season of crap filler which made them have to cancel the show before potentially interesting Jinchuu arc? Which, of course, relegated the Jinchuu arc to 1 decent set of OAVs (kenshin's past) and then the horribly awful second set. I want these drugs. I wonder if it's Robin Williams magic drug, 'Fuck-it-all'? It would certainly explain a lot. Now, if you pardon me, I'm going to go watch some Spiral. Another show with snails pace plot but I like Ayumu and all the logic games. I'm so weird....

2003-02-28T17:07:00.000-05:00

I was reading through a list of bad baby names (Electra, for parents who've never read ancient greek plays or want to insure daddy issues) and I remembered what has to be the coolest name for a dog. A person I used to work for had a dog who, technically, was Nan. However, he called her Nan-ee. Read, Nani (Japanese for 'what'). Being a relatively recent anime fan I thought it was incredibly cool. Still do, to this day. If I ever get to name my cat (We get ours from the SPCA and it seems silly to change their names) I'm probably going to call it that.
After all, Potatoe's already taken.

2003-02-27T22:52:00.000-05:00

I really have to squish my yaoi!fangirl side down a bit. >_< For heavens sake, it's even invading Hikaru no Go! Hikaru no Go has almost no yaoi vibes at all, at least for me, which's something, since all the cast that really matters is male. Sure, the girls are in there, but they get tossed aside pretty fast to follow Hikaru and the others. Of course, Mitani and co get thrown over too... Well, for a show starring lots of pretty boys (Hikaru's a hotty) it's amazing how adeptly it's sidestepped giving any of them realistic romances. Even Akari and Hikaru aren't a very good couple, since they never get to spend much time together (that we see>_>). But, then, I started watching the anime ep 7 and, well, this popped up:

scene: Touya Akira's come to Haze jr. high and is standing outside of the school, looking into the 'club room' and talking to Hikaru. He wants to know why Hikaru's in the school Go club.
Touya: *Talking, the shot is of a startled Hikaru's face* No matter who I play with I'm constantly thinking about you...How you would respond to each of my moves. *switch back to Touya looking all stern, sakura petals (Cherry blossoms) start floating down around him* I've become stronger since then so I won't be embarrased by you again. *flash back to Hikaru, also looking serious now, sakura everywhere* I'm waiting for you. I came to say that.
Hikaru: I'm not gonna play against you.
Touya: Eh?...Wait! Why?
Hikaru: I'm going to work with Tsutsui-san in the Go club. Right, Tsutsui-san? *Tsutsui's staring in surprise, but nods* And we're entering the tournament again.
Touya: *looks stunned* You won't play against me... Shindou! *Hikaru shuts the window* Shindou! *Hikaru shuts the curtains as Touya reaches towards it. He looks stunned, staring at the window. Hikaru's inside, leaning back against the window, staring at the floor as Akari, Tsutsui, and Sai stare at him. It's all dark in the room. Eventually the shot switches back to Touya as more flower petals fly everywhere.*
[There's a bit more after this, but, well, you get the idea]

Oh, and did I mention the romantic-style music playing in the background? My god, how often to we find romantic scenes like this in any series? I think I've found my new eternal winner (until I forget -_-) for most amazingly romantic scene between two people who've no romantic interest in each other whatsoever. If I could write stuff like this... Oh.
And I just had to blog. Because, really...Show a horde of fangirls a scene like this with a definitively yaoi couple (Mmm, Seishirou and Subaru. ^-^) and they'll be cooing all week over how wonderful the epi was. Put those lines in a story with a romantic couple and it'd seem all lovey-dovey. Can you really blame me?
I'm gonna watch it again!
I am SUCH a fangirl. :)

Note: I'm watching the Elite Fansubs version of this, so any mistranslations are somewhere down those lines. You can get batch files through bittorent of HikaGo at www.animetorrents.com. That's where I got ep 7. And, of course, Streamload has everything, if you can get the new version to do what you want. -_- And know somewhere to look for places to request. And...that's it from me. Seek, and ye shall find it. Or whatever.

2003-02-05T12:32:00.000-05:00

Isashiburi! (I am such a fangirl...)
Anyway, short blurb today since I have to write this, eat, and run off to 3 classes while tired. Yay! I could be sitting at home on my butt watching Naruto (Which is the first series in awhile where, despite my love of the male characters, I see no yaoi pairings whatsoever. Changes of pace can be nice. Kakashi-sensei, wai! ^^) but instead I have to sit on my butt in class dazed and sleepy...OK, I'm digressing again. >_<
2 points. First, I'm going to be at Katsucon, so anyone who wants to bother me feel free to try and find me. I'll be the ninja with the grey-marbled tabard hanging around with a bunch of guys. It just isn't a con if I don't have at least 1 guy around. Er...n.n; Nevermind. Anyway, point 2. A question, if you please. Has anyone else ever liked/loved a series despite the fact that some element of it induces an unreasoning fear in you? For example, Xenogears has produced an automatic reaction in me to ignore anything that chuu's, for my own mental health. And I like the first couple Anita Blake stories (Though Burnt Offerings pisses me off still. I want pyromaniacs! Not Ho!Anita and her useless wannabe vampire) even though if anyone ever called me 'ma petite' they will be killed on the spot. Or, at the very least, hurt seriously. You may get away with a 'ma cherie' or two but faux french babblings are just so overdone, ja?
And...that's it... Nothing crucial or awe-inspiring here, just evidence I'm still alive and a burning need to ask that last question. For some reason, asking myself just never seems to cut it. Now, off to class. ;_;

2002-12-17T22:53:00.000-05:00

Is it just me or do authors, good or bad, have a tendancy to get all melodramatically whiny and apologetic online? God knows I do. The 'net is such a perfect place to rant though, since some people may actually read it and appreciate it, fanfiction.net has proved that some people will like anything, and everyone else will just slowly back away and go to a page with a sane webmaster. Or onto the fics, depending. But there seem to be 3 major categories of online webauthor personalities. The Souma-hotsprings-owner type (Ritsu's mother, you'll know her if you've seen Fruits Basket) who get all 'AHHH! GOMEN! I haven't posted in so long and I'm a horrible person, but all these things got in the way, though that isn't really an excuse! AHHH! I'm bad! I'm evil! I'm sorry! I'll make it up to you! AHHH!'. Maybe not to that extent, but alot of people seem to be overly, and annoyingly apologetic. *launches into her own long apology about how sorry she is she apologizes so much and she hasn't updated in so long and yada yada yada...* Ahem... Then there's the second major category, the people with attitudes. Be they pretentious, bitchy or just cynical. They tend to be more amusing than the overly apologetic people though condescending attitudes soon wear thin on me. I visit toastyfrog though so I can't exactly complain about this category much. Toasty's cynical pretention, just perfect for the elitist college student in all of us (even those not at college).
And the last type, which gets it's own rant, are those who have no sense of grammar, spelling, capitalization or even, sometimes, the difference between letters and numbers. L33t speak is no longer cool, if it ever was. Having your page title in l33t makes you seem like a camper hack, not some cool, experienced websurfer. When I think of l33t speakers I think of those idiots populating IRC channels and online games who run around saying things like 'n e 1 no nud code fr tomb raider?' or what not. And no, I can't do proper l33t speak, my mind shudders from it. My father makes fun of me for my typos, because noone ever mistypes teh for the, of course, and then pops up with things like 'r u dere?'. I actually had to fight with him to get him to use punctuation and capitalization when typing. This is the man who came up with, wrote and made notecards for a final paper all in one day with the topic of 'the effects of war on the ground it's fought on' or something like that. He actually knew enough to throw it all together in one day, and had enough grammar and spelling skills to at least pass the course. He was, for a long time, the only member of my immediate family with a college degree. He loves reading. And, yet, he wonders why I get so upset when he displays the language skills of a grade student online. I admit I'm rather sensetive about it but that's because I once had a friend who, despite being in high school and able to converse perfectly well with others and displaying no signs of any mental disorder, simply couldn't type, or even write that well for that matter. He'd write entire paragraphs, in an online MUCK RP situation, which ran like an old latin text, in small letters from beginning to end without punctuation. He did master the spacebar, thankfully. (I'm still trying to figure out how the Japanese read things. Their words run together!)But the rest of us, who'd been online some time and knew how to translate speech into text would have to stare at the screen for several minutes trying to translate. 'Umm....OK...how many sentences is this? Man...Ohh! I see it now!' 'It isn't a Magic Eye thingy, doofus.' No caps is only slightly better than HaLf CaPs. Seeing a complete lack of spelling or some stupid gammatical slaughter, like l33t, tells the audience right away what they can expect from any material you produce. Garbage. Unless it's ROMs, in which case we don't belong there anyway. ^_^; Not that I know any good ROM sites, really. :| But...is it really so hard to use grammar online? I'm talking about just the Americanized version of grammar. The kind where alright, while not technically a word, is overlooked except by the most strict of us *coughEnglishmajorscough* Though I've always done very well in my English classes, largely due to my love of writing and reading, I've never mastered grammar myself, as you can probably see. And I never liked English enough to stick with it long. I have fairly good spelling skills though, I think, which you may not believe looking at this page but, hey, this stuff isn't spell checked. And unless blogger suddenly gets an online spell checker thing it probably won't be in the future. I don't really feel like opening word, copying this over, picking out all the mistakes, popping back over here and pasting it back in for the two people who'll read it and this 'Man, I'd respect her if it wasn't for all those spelling errors. I mean...Who can't spell throughought? She can spell psychosomatic and conscientious but not throughout? Someone help her.' (And no, I really can't spell that word. I had to look it up. Which probably ruins the effect but, as I've been ranting, blatant mispellings offend my sensibilities.) ... OK, that's enough out of me. I'm actually looking up words now. Proof positive that I need to stop talking and move on. Maybe to studying Japanese...a very simple language that I can't quite seem to get the hang of. Stupid teacher, requiring us to translate sentences to Japanese.
Note: Three signs that you are an otaku is that, first, you giggled insanely and exchanged looks with other anime club members when the teacher actually used the word otaku (polite form of 'house'), second, you get nearly 100% on translating words, putting in particles and in the hiragana and katakana sections but are lower when you actually have to put complex sentences together (since all you remember from anime is the simple stuff) and finally you can pronounce the words correctly from the very beginning. Even if others are still struggling with things like moraimashita and hurting your ears with their garble in the second year. They should know better by now. Honestly. -_- *gets all elitist and pretentious* And...that's my cue to bow out...really...I mean it this time!...Ooh, my files are done.

2002-12-17T09:36:00.000-05:00

I was playing Sims today and, as my Social Work major insticts kicked in, I realized, wouldn't it be a good way to demonstrate the problems welfare mothers have? Here's the basic set up: You have one adult, a mother, and 3 kids. They get a house that has two bedrooms, one bathroom and a kitchen. Basic beds and utilities and such. And, say, make a rule that the children can't make friends that work as connections for the mother's job. After all, in the real world it's not who the kids know that matters, it's who the mother knows. The mother will start out as many welfare mothers actually do, with no skills and no connections in a low-paying job, and have to support herself, her home and her kids. Can she do it? Is it possible to support a family and pay the bills on such meager earnings? Can she manage to build her skills, make connections with others, work AND have any kind of relationship with her kids? Remember, people, in the real world a parent can't just ignore her children, though it's easy enough in the game. And what about the kids? What'll they do? Get bored easily, no doubt, but you'll need something to entertain them. Can you afford it? What about a maid, who'll keep the house clean, who'll repair things? The repairman's a bit expensive for a house on a budget, you know. If you want you could make the parent a father, though it doesn't make much difference. In the Sims pay is equal, how nice, and he'd face the same obstacles. Particularly if you can't afford a nice bed, making his sleep time longer if he wants any rest.
Something to think about, ne?

2002-12-16T05:18:00.000-05:00

I've come to the not-very-startling epiphany that the main problem with Mary Sues, in fanfics or series, is the fact that everything seems to center around them. Eliminating Mary Sue-ism can be accomplished if an author keeps three easy ideas in there mind:
First, only one or two characters will actually fall in love with her. More characters may think they're in love with her, for awhile at least, or be very good friends but they won't all be suffering from head-over-feet infatuations. True love is a fickle and rare thing normally, but I'd imagine it's even harder to hold onto when the object of that love is clearly never going to return it. A person may cling to the idea of love or the thought they're in love with a person, but they won't actually be in love, willing to suffer the innumerable slings and arrows, yada yada yada. And not everyone will fall in love with the same person *coughcoughFushigiYuugicough*. The personality that may appeal to one person may turn another off completely or awaken a sibling type of love. And remember people, incest isn't just biology. It's distasteful to think of someone 'loving' a person they think of as a brother or sister even if they aren't related. It's a selfish sort of love too. If you've been in love with the same person since you were five yes, you may have just found the right person early on, but chances are you just never paid much attention to the outside world. Having all the characters in the story love the main hero/heroine simply because they're the only good option (see FY again. Aren't there any young, available women in any of the four countries?) isn't an example of how wonderful the heroine is. It's an example of what horribly awful luck the men have. And, for the most part, people don't love perfect people. We envy them. Sure, we'd love to spend time with them, but if a person has no flaws chances are we, flawed people, aren't going to want to be with them because we'll feel inferior in some way. Perfect people are annoying and, since they have no real, all-consuming flaws to fight, rather dull. Love between two perfect people is boring. So...um...darn digressions. Basically: Not everyone loves Miaka Sue. There are other women in the world. Get over it.
The second thing is that other characters must do things for reasons not pertaining to Miss Sue. Even if it seems like a situation where the reason would have to relate to her, sometimes it doesn't. For example, a person may join her group (and in Mary Sue's case it is always *her* group, no matter who the hero is) simply because they're bored. Or because they hate their family and will do anything to get away. Or another character, perhaps even a female!, joins the group for some reason and they like them enough to stick with them. But, in most MS cases, everything centers around her, particularly for the hero. All his thoughts and actions center around her, whenever he thinks about his past it's about her and then they first met, not something more common like 'Did I eat today?' or 'Are we out of cheese? I like cheese.' People don't really change much because of love. They may compromise, but they won't really change. If they did, they wouldn't really be the people we fell in love with. When writing a fic pay attention to why people are doing things. If you find your characters making their decisions based solely on what the Mary Sue wants, or because they just adore her so they have to do (whatever), then something's wrong. The world doesn't revolve around Mary Sue. One of the reasons I respect Chichiri and Chiriko from FY is that they never base their decisions on what Miaka wants. Most of the others join simply because they just adore Miaka SOOO much and so, forget the fact they don't really want to, she needs their help! C & C, on the other hand, join because, y'know, that's what they were born to do. And they tend to base their actions on logic rather than emotions. While all the other Suzaku seishi seem to be jumping to the 'We must do this for Miaka because MIaka's the best girl ever! We know this for a fact because the only other available girls in the entire world are that bitch Yui and that slut Soi. Miaka rulz!' tune they just kind of hang around in the background and think. (And yes, I know Mitsukake manages to avoid that trap, but he joins because Miaka charms him into it. And if you think Tasuki manages to avoid doing things for the love of Miaka, though he does have an unfortunate love of alcohol, watch the second OAV. If you dare.)
And finally, make sure she's a necessary character. It's OK if she's related to one of the major characters and the love interest of the lead (who may or may not even be straight), as long as she has a reason for existing. She has to be used to advance the story in a way that brings out some new element in a character(s) or puts a new spin on things. See Miaka for a good example of this one. Without her nothing would've happened. Without her near constant screw-ups, and occasional victories, the story would've gone completely differently. Giving a character someone to fall in love with is not a reason for existence.
Oh, and no matter what the setting please remember that women are people too. Even if society demands that they see themselves as sub-human, they'll still have things they're good at and a will to survive. Most women who've never been abused will fight back or try to escape abuse if it happens to them. Women can be very strong and are often required to do even more demanding work then men. You just try to keep a house clean, raise children well, cook meals a whole group of people will eat and still be cheery when your man comes home. And god help you if you add poverty into that mess. Just try it. I'd fail in a day.So...Ok, it's 4 ideas, but really... It's amazing how often people seem to forget these basic things. And the first three are pretty much the basic rules you should apply to any character, most especially one who takes such a huge place in a story, as all Mary Sues do, that they become the lead character. Lead charas have a lot of demands on them, in the story and from the readers/viewers. Keep that in mind and do try to make them at least basically worth our time, ne?

2002-12-05T11:02:00.000-05:00

Yes! Snow day! Can anything beat the thrill of waking up and finding out you have a free day off from school? OK, so I didn't wake up, I just found out, but hey. And I don't get to pass Go and collect 200 (badly needed) dollars but otherwise it's perfect. I mean, sure I stayed up almost all night working on paper, though more often I was working up to working on them, but that means I have little to do tonight. Sure it'll throw some schedules off but this is my day full of incredibly dull classes, most of which have stuff due. I don't have to sit through hours of boredom which will quite certainly test the question of whether it's possible for me to sleep in class. Other than AP Bio in high school, that had comfy desks, and I wasn't really asleep just in that hazy place where you're fully awake but don't want to make the effort to move and, to all intents and purposes, seem asleep. I was awake though. I think I fell asleep once in Pre-cal but that was because it was so boring. I never did master the art of walking into a dull class, waiting for the teacher to take roll and passing out. Guess I'm not that good a college student afterall.

2002-12-05T09:30:00.000-05:00

Woo! I did it! I managed to get all my papers done with an entire hour to spare. And sleep too! I'm so happy...of course, now I have to finish memorizing my katakana, and review my hiragana, for my Japanese test tomorrow and then I have two more papers due next week and then...*sigh* Is it bad when you look forward to finals as a chance to relax and goof off? The only truly difficult exam this time around will probably be my poli sci exam, since the Class from Hell has no exams at all, and as long as I get off my butt and force myself to study for a couple hours for each...Mmm, easy street. Then it's back to Minnesota to see my grandmother. Then back here for...well, I'm not much looking forward to January. I'll have to work on convincing my father that, no, really, 65 is not warm it is, in fact, cold. And that for a house to be warm it must be at leas 75 degrees. Preferably 80. I've been so spoiled by my lack of heating bills up here at FSU... Meh. Oh well. Lesse, it's only how many days to Katsucon? (yes, yes, I know, I should be posting FI, but here I am rapturing that I got 2 hours of sleep last night despite 2 papers and a ton of class related stuffs I had to do. I think all fanfic writers, at least college age ones, are pretty much on break for rest of the month, due to overloads. Stupid teachers.)

2002-11-23T21:50:00.000-05:00

Perhaps it's simply due to overexposure, but anime fights are really starting to get dull. It seems like half the anime that's coming out now is some fight-based series, much like Yuu Yuu Hakusho. YYH was the second show I saw that was centered entirely around beating up some random bad guy group of the week or fighting in some major tournament. DBZ was first, but that was the edited version and many of the fights were in actual groups, not the one-on-one so popular now. So let's stick with YYH. I didn't care too much for the fights even then. Kurama's were nice, since they never lasted too long and always ended with some well-thought-out move from him. Hiei's fights were usually pretty short. Though I may change my opinion if I ever actually watch through the tournaments. Like I said, I started it when the series was hard to find, and the later episodes near impossible. But Kuwabara and Yuusuke...They're perfect examples of the genre of fight anime where the hero operates under the 'get the sh** beat out of you for most of an episode then pull some major attack/spiritual power out of your a** and finish off the enemy. Finally.' Also Yuusuke was the first good example of a hero who took several episodes trying to kill the villain while the others stood around like idiots or stayed behind for some silly reason so he could fulfill the conventions. I find this sort of fight horribly, disgustingly and awfully boring. And it's only getting worse over time, as every other anime seems to have picked up the need to follow this idea. I like many of the fights in Flame of Recca, I couldn't like the show otherwise, but more often than not I'll skip any where Recca fights. He at least tries to use his brain when he fights but mostly it's just a matter of him pulling out some new dragon from his arm and using it to save the day/win the fight. Wow! Give me Fuuko and her attitude any time. It's stretching to other anime too now. Shaman King was a great series when it wasn't just Yoh against someone who horribly overpowers him. I refuse to watch any more Rockman.exe since it's just Rock vs the -man of the day, Rock following the Hero's Fight Code, of course. Blues is almost reason enough to watch any epi he's in, but unless Zero shows up I think I'll stick with the games. I like those. Which is saying something, since I never liked any of the traditional MM games. Legends is cool too though...
Ahem. I'm digressing. Anyway, my point is that many of the series creators today seem to think that we fans like this sort of one sided battle. I have to disagree, at least speaking for myself. It isn't terribly interesting watching Magensha smacking Domon around, or Recca getting beaten by Kukai. I'd rather watch Fuuko fighting Gashakura or Koganei vs Joker. Fights were both sides are fairly equal, where skills and wits are needed to win, not just brute strength. There's a reason the Saitou - Kenshin fight in RK stands out so compared to the others. Since they're essentially equal it's a back and forth fight, give and take, a long and grueling battle. It's not just Kenshin getting beaten and then coming up with some super attack to end it *coughfirstAoshfightcough* but rather a real battle. At the end, we still aren't really sure who won. That's a whole lot more realistic then if Kenshin had suddenly pulled off some super attack and won. Just look at his fight with Shishio. He follows all the conventions there and makes it probably the worst fight in the series. At least, in my opinion. I'd have to say I didn't like the Usui - Saitou for the same reasons if I didn't adore Saitou so much. He manages to pull off the formula with style. Probably because he only does it once, and the fight itself, aside from the backstory, is very short. I know this whole formula fight thing isn't new, just look at Sailor Useless, er, Moon.But now it seems to be popular to write series centered around the fights and tournaments, rather than the characters. Scryed is good because it focuses more on the characters and their feelings than, say, Rockman.exe. Even the horribly useless Mimori can't destroy my love for that series. But Shaman King, the anime, is starting to wear on me. It's one thing to read a manga based on fighting, were you can go through the battle as fast as you can read, it's something else to make a 30 minute long episode of it. Ie, not good. Oh well, guess I'll just have to continue my search for other anime. Maybe Inu Yasha. It may suffer from the Ranma syndrome (ie, horribly overlong) but at least the fights aren't horribly imbalanced. And the fact that it's on CN isn't so bad either. ^_^

2002-11-22T13:22:00.000-05:00

(Beware, more random babble!) Dear lord, Full Moon o Sagashite has some great songs in it. The Scanty's openings are energetic fun, though nowhere near as drug-crazed as Pita Ten's, and I've become addicted to Rock 'n Roll Princess. Myself is the prettiest song I've heard in a long time. The lyrics are just gorgeous and I may not be crazy for the lead chara's speaking voice (Myco?) but she can really sing well. Even if she really doesn't sound twelve. It's been awhile since I've loved a slow, quiet song. I'm still not too sure if I really like the Furuba opening or not. Spiral has a fun opening too, to go with the unexpectedly fun show. Satisfies the mystery fan in me. I especially love the fact that they explain all the logic and tha all the evidence that Narumi has we get to see too. Even Sherlock Holmes stories didn't have that, since we were only given what Watson saw and what Holmes told him. It's kind of nice that there's so many fun lesser known anime coming out. I do think .hack//sign is horribly boring though. I'll just wait for the game. It was fun the first epi where I, who had no background info at all other than that a friend liked it and the name, was trying to figure everything out. I love doing that. Unfortunately the second epi had no such task to relieve the dullness of the entire thing. Bah. Oh well, I'm off to watch more Full Moon. And pray that they don't end up having Takuto's past the painfully obvious/trite cliche I'm afraid it will be. I managed to come up with a way more interesting, and moving, idea than that in the first few epis. Then again, monkey's could probably come up with a newer possibility than that old 'he's really her ******!' possibility. I have hope that it won't happen though. I love Arina's stories. Her male leads especially. Chiaki and Takuto are both veyr cool, especially since they develop into deeper charas as the story goes along. Now, as long as Takuto doesn't explode with all the unresolved sexual tension he's obviously got for Mitsuki everything will go well. Unless, they use that old plot device. That would make the whole thing just icky. Oh well...

side note: Is it just me or is it a bad sign when seeing a movie name 'The Emperor's Club' you immediately think 'Lan-Evo? Did Kyoichi get his own movie now?'. No more Initial D for me, I guess...

2002-11-18T23:27:00.000-05:00

[/begin random babbling mode] Hmm...it seems to be getting harder to find new stuff even in anime/manga that's outside fo any 'established' genre. Not only do we have the hundreds of Evangelion, Sailor Moon and Yuu Yuu Hakusho rip-offs but now the strange, outsider animes, like Fancy Lala, are getting redone. That isn't to say spinoffs are a bad thing. I loved Flame of Recca, which was quite obviously a YYH ripoff. If the plot and the hero who's 'pretty weak but pulls off some mighty attack to save the day after wasting far too much time getting beaten up' weren't a clue Mikagami, my favorite effimate iceboy, is obviously Kurama's love child. Just take a look at his first appearance and tell me that you didn't wonder for a minute if Kurama'd simply dyed his hair. He has Hiei's attitude too, but let's not encourage the yaoi fangirls here. Scryed is one that probably derived from this genre, though it's a far call from the others tournament centered plots. And as much as I love it I I have to say I'd enjoy it much more if the girls, other than Shireece, weren't such pathetic wastes of space. Ok, well, it's really just Mimori. Dear lord, the Useless-Princess complex was never more evident in that braindead twit. All she does is run around after Ryuhou, the hypocritical bastard who makes Aoshi look cuddly, and...umm...be fawned over by everyone. Oh! At one point she finds out something important but she never actually gets around to sharing it with us. She just goes all 'oh my god! I can't believe it! This is so horrible! I must go talk to Jigmar! Oh no! I'm in trouble now! Can I be done wasting their time yet? No? Crap. Umm...OH! I'll just angst over the fact Ryuhou has too much brains to love me.' Ayase and Kanami are also fairly useless, but I think that's mostly because the creator of the manga doesn't hold for that feminist stuff. All the guys here kick butt, but the girls are horribly pathetic. I miss Fuuko and her attitude. And who decided Mujo Kyouji was a good villain? Talk about sad.
What was I saying again? Oh yeah! Derivative anime. *cough* Well, I've been noticing it a bit more recently. Almost all centered around Arina Tanemura's stuff. I got Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne and then later stumbled across a site about DNAngel. My first thoughts were 'WTF? Didn't I just see this in KKJ?'. They both feature the same basic plot: steal artwork hero(ine), for everlasting peace! And they both have screwed up family lives and transform. Daisuke has the coolest family though. They are enacted completely differently at least. Jeanne steals for good, Dark steals for...umm...Who cares, it's Dark Mousy. Stupid name, sexy guy. Chiaki's actually a second-rater compared to him, though I bet that'd change if he got out of his silly clothes and let Daisuke's mom outfit him. They also have the 'hero's stealing for good, or is he? the other people like us are bad, or are they?'. They aren't equal in romance though, I love Marron/Chiaki but I haven't seen any real good emotional sparks with anyone for Daisuke. Satoshi comes closest, but that may be my fangirl senses kicking in. Have I mentioned I love Daisuke's family?
And the other one, Full Moon o Sagashite and Fancy Lala. I haven't seen much of Lala, only an episode or two, but I must say I prefer FMS to it. The plot isn't much better, Mitsuki spends too much time mooning over Eichi, but at least it doesn't seem as perverted. Lala's main character Miho is 9 years old and turns into 15 year old Fancy Lala so fanboys can drool over her and she can participate in more adult things (not that, hentai's!) but she retains her 9 year old mind. So, either way she's jailbait and has the mentality of a young child. Mmm, family values. *shudders* I like the series but there's this nagging voice in the back of my mind that says 'Some people find this 9 year old in a 15 year old body sexy' and shivers. I admit I like my boys *coughcoughLiShaorancough* but not that way. Really! I see them for their potential. I can barely stand the immaturity of 18 year old males, those half that age do nothing for me. (Random note: Has anyone seen the sketches of older Chiriko from Fushigi Yuugi? Talk about a hottie. Then again, all Watase males are hot. 'cept that rival emperor guy from FY. *shudder*) FMS is about a 12 year old girl who just grows up 4 years so she can fulfill her dreams. I find that less disturbing. I still don't like the idea of people lusting over a girl with the mind of a 12 year old but, FMS barely focuses on her appearance. Lala becomes a model (and thus supposed eyecandy for men) which further triggers my 'eek, bad perversion!' buttons. In FMS Mitsuki wants to fulfill her dream of becoming a singer and meeting her crush before she dies. It's tragic, not vaguely sick. I still like Lala. It was fun and so cutesy that a person with less hentai-sense than me probably won't even pay attention to the undertones. But I like FMS more for not only the presence but, well, the fact it's done by Tanemura. I love her stuff. The fact it looks better and has hotter guys (Lala's obviously an older anime, though it's hardly bad looking) doesn't hurt. And it gets bonus points for having cool magical-sidekick charas. Takuto and Meroko beat those funky stuffed-animal things anytime, and not just because Takuto's a hottie. He could use a slight fashion change himself.
Oh, and one last thing. Please people, Cowboy Bebop is NOT anything new. It is a mishmash of all kinds of old cliche's and there's a newness in the combination, but nothing by itself is new. Especially not Spike, who's the angsty kick-arse kind of guy I find hideously boring. He's a rival of Kakyou from X in terms of wasteful angst and the only reason I don't despise Spike thoroughly is the fact that every now and then he kicks butt. But for the most part it's just a mix of all the Western cliches and Futuristic Space cliches. Ed is great, if a warning never to do drugs, but the other characters...Jet's never around enough and when he does it's all yawn-inducing serious angst which, of course, is so cliched you see it coming a mile away. Faye's OK, but she never seems to be able to live up to her tomboy attitude. I might like it more if she was ever allowed to go in and kick some villain butt rather than tagging along after Spike. I love Vicious for no reason I can guess. He isn't a hottie, he isn't a particularly good villain, and he doesn't have the best fight scenes. I love him anyway though. The ending is only a clincher for me. Whee! Down with pathetic, angsty, Lupin wanna-be's! I'd probably like Spike's old girlfriend more if she wasn't simply a plot device. But, eh, who knows. Maybe the movie will change my opinion on this show. It's been sitting on my comp for months and I haven't gotten around to watching it yet. Silly me. Though if I ever, ever, EVER see another music video to this series or Trigun or Sailor Moon or, godforbid, DBZ I'm going to seriously consider hunting the maker down and killing them. As a service to humanity. We have more than enough mvids for these series, people! Never make another one unless it's incredibly good to a very good, non-Linkin-Part, song! And don't submit it to contests either, please. Spare my sensibilities. Same for Final Fantasy mvids. There is not enough CGI material in any Final Fantasy game to support a video unless every scene is included. Which basically means we're watching the FMVs to music. Yay! No more of these. No more FF7, 8 or 9. I want more Auron so I probably won't complain about X.
Am I the only one who finds X-2 scary? I never liked Yuna, she was well-written and strong in battle and her voice fit perfectly, but she was constantly in pathetic martyr, 'everything for the people of Spira! I can't have fun or marry for love or anything that may interfere with even the slightest happiness of the people of Spira!' That, combined with all her '*gasp!* *shock!*Oooh! *further shock*' bits of 'dialogue' pretty much whenever any non-hero spoke to her and the fact that I can't skip her dialogue makes me hate her. I despise useless martyr females and she's a prime example. Her summons are great though. At least that's an improvement from the near useless females in the previous games. What I wouldn't give for another Celes. Or more Lulu. Even Rikku was pretty cool. Don't even get me started on Terra or Garnet though. Who's idea was it to put out a game, KH, with a male lead named Riku after FFXs female major chara Rikku? Drugs are obviously involved. And I think I'll shut up now. [/end random babbling mode]

(Edit note: I fixed my mispelling of Tanemura's name. Tane, not Tene. You'd think I'd know better.-_-)

2002-11-17T18:45:00.000-05:00

Mmm, complainin' time! The topic today is: yaoi smut-fic. A topic that is near and dear to my libi-...heart. Yeah. I don't write smut myself. My stories may range from G to R, but never do they venture over into the NC-17 area. And I do not fear straight pairings, as it seems some fangirl (or fanboy) authors do. In fact, there are many series which I firmly believe should never, ever be slashed. And many couples which I've found fics for that should never be slashed. Not unless the writer's prepared to write a VERY good story convincing me that yes, these two could go together. Or at least have something in there to indicate why, other than fangirl dementia, they thought it'd be a good idea. Dragonball Z is a series that should NEVER be slashed. The guys all have girls that, while overbearing, are hardly horrific examples of anime females. And the guys themselves don't seem to mind. (Rurouni Kenshin slash fans are slowly wearing me down by sheer numbers into accepting the fact that, yes, some people think that Kenshin and Sano, or whatever couple they chose, is a good idea. I personally don't see it and like the straight, IC pairings in the series. But maybe that's just me) The number one pairing that I never wanna see has to be Gohan/Piccollo. That doesn't work for me. Piccollo's been taking care of Gohan since he was a small child and...ugh...Too like incest, the dirty kind. They have a parental-type relationship, not a sexual one people. Piccollo's more of a father figure to him than Goku ever was. OK, let's set aside the fics whose very idea makes my mind shudder and turn to those featuring pairings I can accept.
The biggest problem in these fics has to be how rampantly out of character (OOC) they are. OOC-ness is a problem in all kinds of fics but, for some reason, it seems to be particularly so in yaoi smut. How often have we readers, at least those who are into this sort of thing, pulled up a fic which was decently written but featured a sudden garrulous Squall? And what about those Treize/Wufei shippers in the GW ficdom? I know that the GW fandom is it's own living and breathing entity quite seperate from the series but what crack-addled mind first thought that up? And then there's the Harry potter fics. I love the HP stories and, obviously, am a fan of yaoi. But yaoi HP fics...they scare me. They truly do. Most of them bear only a passing resemblance to their canon counterparts. All Snape/anyone shippers seem to has conviniently forgotten the fact that Snape, no matter how cool Rickman plays him in the movies, is a 'greasy git'. The man has bathing issues and an attitude problem. And Harry hates him, and he hates Harry as he hated Harry's father. Many fans need to try to remember these things. I like Snape as a character, but Rowlings effectively killed off any physical attraction by emphasizing his lack of hygine. Then there's Draco, who has nearly universally been transformed from a conniving, ghostly brat who's limited to petty schemes, at least thus far in the series, into a tall, handsome, seductive sex god. As much as I love that image, sexy evil blondes? Hell yes!, it is completely and totally OOC. And then there's the fact that fics start out with the characters realizing that they've actually been totally in love with each other the whole series and are only fighting to hide it. Which's a nice segue into the second problem. The overuse of the 'hey, guess what, I never showed it but I've actually been lus-er...in love with you for a long, long time!' which's almost always paired with the 'You too? My god! Both of us moon-eyed in love so that only a blind idiot couldn't tell and we never noticed? Even though we're around each other alot? Go fig.' That's the basis for 1/2 to 3/4 of yaoi fics out there. Tasuki has always, always been in love with Nuriko or Chichiri or Tamahome and despite the fact that he never showed any interest in anyone in the series (Yes, I've seen the OAVs. They both hurt me and I want to forget them now) he's been in love with (male character of choice) for, like, ever! And so you'll get a few overly long scenes of him mooning about how he'll never get their love or how undeserving he is or whatever topic of angst is prefered and then, suddenly, they'll get stuck together in some contrived plot device, the other character will confess that they too have been overriden by hormones (though they call it love) and then you'll get a sappy smut scene. Sometime the formula varies by switching between characters points of views. Chara 1 will angst and think the other doesn't care, chara 2 will angst over their hopeless love and feel unworthy, back and forth ad nauseum until finally they snap, blurt it out and get it on. I suppose my own hatred for this type of fic comes from that period where I snatched up all the GW 1x2 stuff I could find. This formula is the one almost every 1x2 fan follows. It seems to be very popular in Fushigi Yuugi too, at least in the few I've had heart to look at, and probably all kinds of other series which aren't shonen-ai or yaoi to begin with. CLAMP fics and Gravitation fics seem to fair much better, though that's because there are IC pairings for people to work off of. So much easier. And the fact I'll forgive almost anything for a well-written fic with Yuki Eiri in it probably doesn't hurt either. ^_^
Oh, and purple prose. Please people, try not to use this? Particularly during the sex scenes themselves. I know we use euphamisms to make things more erotic, I doubt if even doctors get off on medical text desciptions of sex, but really try not to wax too lyrical about the many wonders of a characters sexual equipment, performance or stamina. And avoid some of the sillier euphamisms out there. Your target audience is old enough to handle use of the word cock and penis (at least, I hope they are!) so don't fear them. Talking about 'their turgid length' sounds rather purplish to me. And I won't go any deeper into this topic lest I feel perverted about it later. I have standards too, you know.
Well, that's pretty much every aspect of yaoi fics except the sex itself. And I have nothing against boy-lovin', so that isn't a problem with me. I would complain about the random fangirl Japanese issue but I'm still fighting that myself so I have no room to talk. Basically: Keep people IC and situations believable. Purple prose and fangirl Japanese is never good, not even in GW fics where it's become the norm. Some series and pairings either never were meant to be slashed (because their relationships take on a different form, they're already attached or they never actually meet nor have a chance to during the course of the series/game) or require some sort of explination/justification to set the scene. Squall is not randomly going to be in love with Zell/Seifer/Irvine/whoever and Tasuki does not, unless I'm missing an epi, ever show any signs of secretly lusting after her fellow seishi. Convert these examples into whatever fandom you are in. I know that all an author has to do is write smut fics for a popular pairing, good or otherwise, and they'll gather unto them a clique of rabid fangirls clamoring for more of the same thing, but you could at least try? Please? Have pity on those of us who want something a bit better then the one-in-a-million crapsmut they've got out there. I know there are some authors who write these things well, which's why I retain hope for the genre, but couldn't you all at least try a little? Oh well, maybe fanfic.net cutting off NC-17 fics will actually end up being a good thing. Now the badfic lovers will have to actually work to get their fix.

2002-11-13T01:07:00.000-05:00

I think I just recieved the most jarringly discordant pair of items ever in the mail. On one hand I have A Little Princess, a shamlessly WAFFy fluff of a movie. I have a weakness for those. I'm still waiting with baited breath for my Secret Garden tape (replacing the one that got lost awhile ago, which has actually caused me significant regret). But, in the other package, I got Grand Theft Auto 2. I got snacks too, but molasses crinkles and pumpkin bread can never be bad. So, with the packages recieved today, I can sit down and bury my rational thought to watch the warm 'n fluffy ALP while munching on sugary goodness then pop my playstation on and start carjacking and killing Loonies left and right. Oh, and blowing up ice cream trucks with Molotov cocktails and rocket launchers. Mmm, fluff, snacks and violence. Now all I need are pretty boys! I love being American.

2002-11-10T22:33:00.000-05:00

Gah. So busy. -_- FI is delayed yet again. I ended up in the ER last saturday and have spent all week recovering and running around all busy. Plus Suikoden 3 has tried to crush my soul. But, on the other hand, I got an 86 on my Japanese midterm without spending a single second studying ^-^; so I'm happy there. Meh. Hopefully I'll get the next part of FI up soon. There's a scene I want to finish but my non-Japanese class teachers keep boring me into stupor. Just my luck I have the most boring psych teacher for 2 of my classes. x_x On the other hand, I have Matt Beaumont's e to keep me entertained. And snacks on the way. College life is so fun. Now to get off my butt and actually write up this stupid debate draft. :P

2002-10-30T16:08:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm still alive. Just a warning to people that though FI is almost ready, it won't be done for a bit. I'm playing Suikoden 3 and, well, Suikoden games are probably the real owners of my soul. Sims get dull after too long a stretch and FF has been having problems, though 10 is great, so Suikoden comes out on top I guess. Yay! Anyway, expect a review up soon. Causeno matter what my desc says, this' turned into a review spot thingy. Short 'n Sweet: Buy it. This game is fun. Not as fun as Suikoden 2, IMHO, but even if you didn't like the other Suikoden ganes you should try this. It's practically a completely different game. And that's the problem. Expect a longer review in the near future, after I manage to finish the thing. And yes, I'll gripe alot, but blogs are about catharsis no? Besides, good reviews do gripe alot. They're supposed to find all the bad points and bring them to the light. And boy, do I have a lot to complain about here...I still love it though.

2002-10-15T17:24:00.000-04:00

Dogs are like young children. If you care for them, either acceptably or very well, they will love you unconditionally. They may not behave very well, but, hey, if all you need is love... Luckily for parents, however, young children do not have to be taken out on walks to go to the bathroom rain or shine. And I've never seen anyone carrying a pooper scooper after a toddler before.
Cats are like teenagers. If you care for them and devote as much attention as they decide they deserve to them they will, occasionally, deign to bestow their affections upon you in return. You lucky human you. And discipline is no longer 'bad pets pee on the rug. Good pets use the litter box/outside.' It's more 'Peeing on the rug is not in your own best interest. It smells bad and it makes mommy cranky and that means I can't spend as much time and energy on you as you deserve and your food may be a few minutes late even. And that's bad. Going to the bathroom in the litter box is good because then it's taken care of by your human slaves and your food gets to you on time. See?'. But cats don't eat your shoes, at least. They may eat your shoelaces, wires, telephone cords, crackers, pizza and potholders, but not your shoes or your clothing. And you don't have to take them for walks. That would require them to spend time with you and, like, ewww!
I'm so a cat person.

2002-10-03T03:42:00.000-04:00

(yay! More KH spoilers! Warning, these are for fairly far into the game....)

Well...managed to get almost to the end in KH. I'm (un)happy to say that all of my predictions have come true, though they were fairly general but the whole stupid game is general, and I've only 2 redeeming things about this game. First, and totally foremost, is Halloween Town. Now, normally, I'd say it's a bust. The Doctor's no longer the semi-evil menace he was in the movie but rather just some helpful old guy, there's no kick-arse musical number (I love the musical numbers in Nightmare Before Christmas...I really do...great, now I'm going to have to dig up that CD again), the kids are reduced to minor annoyances, rather than the adorable pains in the butt they were before, and Sally has lost her personality. She's reduced to one 'I have a bad feeling about this' and that's it. Zero might as well not be there. Jack is still, well, Jack. He's almost cool enough to carry the level by himself, but they don't give him nearly enough lines. The whole level is too short, they should've had Christmas town as well. Considering how long Agrabah and the hideously awful Atlantica was they could've at least given us that. But...well...I can forgive and move on since I really, really, really love Sora's outfit. Donald's too, actually. Goofy's isn't that interesting though. But Vamp Sora...I love it. I really hope we get cosplayers doing this. I don't know why I love it, I still think Sora's basically Hero Lite, but he looks...well...cool. Must be a fangirl thing. Cloud looks cool in here too but he's such a non-entity, and his clothes are so blatantly derived from Vincent's, that he doesn't really count. OK, second thing. 100 Acre Woords. I LOVE Winnie the Pooh, and they did it all fairly well. I could use less focus on the whole bouncing thing, and more scenes with Eyeore, prefereably one where he talks, but it's still very good overall. If it wasn't for the abominable Atlantica level (which not only required me to learn a new way of navigating but was unnecessarily confusing and, if it had been removed completely, would've gone unnoticed. There's nothing and no one that that even pretends to contribute to the non-existent plot. No Dalmations even! Joy.) and the fact that my characters stubbornly refuse to get to the proper levels (apparently I have to fight every enemy I come across in every room no matter how many there are in order to get to the proper levels without any specific level building. Yay!), and the whole Synthesis mess (you must make everything in order to get to higher levels...even though supply's are limited and you don't need these things. Ooh.) and the fact I chose Sora as a Warrior chara is coming to bite me in the arse (you in fact lose an ability and don't gain some important ones until the very end when it really doesn't matter anyway) and the fact I can't see where I'm landing when I glide and...oh dear. Well, that cured my sudden urge to actually keep the game. I am going to beat it, I've gotten through Hollow Bastion and everything. But I doubt I'll get that special movie. Hunting down the last few sets of puppies and working my way through that annoying Hades Tournament just isn't my thing. Though, I must say, Sephi has redeemed himself a bit by having the best entrance in the game and, as of yet, not talking. I love bishies...

2002-09-29T22:10:00.000-04:00

All female characters start out as Mary Sues. It's simply a fact of life. This is true in anime and video games as well as fanfiction. The real question is, do they ever get beyond their Mary Sue-ism into something more interesting? Many times the answer is no, either because the writer never develops them or because the reader loses interest in the story and never reads far enough to see what the chara will become. But here's a major point that I think most essays and fanrants about Mary Sues lack, they don't just happen in fanfics. Mary Sues are everywhere, from books, to movies, to anime. Hell, much of anime is based around characters that are basically Mary Sues. How many heroines are extremely competent, able to kick anythings butt, watch out for themselves and are essentially perfect? Now as many as the pathetic Mary Sue type anime heroines, who, despite having powers of their own, still depend on their men to save them because they're too stupid/incompetant to do anything by themselves? until the end of the series, of course, when through the power or love/some other crap they manage to pull off the final attack beating the ultimate evil. Joy! Magical Girl stories are based around Mary Sue characters. All the powerful villains in the world are after *them* and all the potentially powerful allies are going to gather with *them* and everyone else who isn't going to be a lacky but has power will become their rival and try to take them down or out do them. The universe, and the love interests, center around the Magical Girl because, well, that's the way the formula goes. Sakura, from Card Captor Sakura, is a Mary Sue. That girl has no personality. She's absolutely adorable, yes, but she has no real personality. I'd be hard pressed to find any significant change in her from beginning to end except that she can use magic. She's still afraid of ghosts and things. Heck, Touya has more characterization than her and he rarely shows any emotion. Then take a look at Relena. She's not only been adopted into a rich, politically powerful family but she's a princess, of a tragically destroyed kingdom, with a brother who's on the side of evil but has only the most pure of intentions and most beautiful of looks and her 'love interest' is the surly bad boy who, though he kills, is really sweet and she ends up as the Queen of the World and EVERYONE loves her no matter how brain dead she is (She yells off a cliff to Heero even when he's in space. Push her off already!) and she can do no wrong and, even though she sometimes tells people to kill others and lets Gundams into her county which has no real army of its own, she's all about peace and love and bunnies and...and... OK, I think I'm going to be sick. Could that description BE any worse? It's pure foolish adolescent dreams, when girls want to be princesses and marry Prince Charming and be rich and have LOTS of perfect babies. Gag me. I think I skipped over that phase. Thank you cynism! But, that's Relena. A major character. Who, supposedly, get lots of 'character development' though it's mostly her doing completely brain-dead things like following Heero between schools (OZ should've asked Relena where the G-boys were. They never managed to even figure out how old they were, Relena found Heero before he finished unpacking.) no matter what kind of danger that might get them into, or she was rushing into battles without a care for herself because she had to help him 'Heero, not everyone really hates you! See! Oh, and kill my brother will you? I'm all about peace and stuff but beat his ass down!' or she's pulling a gun on someone, in a totally pointless gesture that's totally OOC with her 'peace and love!' characterization that never holds up for more than one episode unless she's using it as an excuse for weakness, or being manipulated or...ARG! OK, enough of that. I'm ranting now. But, see, that's blatant Mary Sue-ism. If a fangirl had writted a character like that you'd all be flaming her mercilessly. True, Relena isn't a beloved character, but she has her own fans. Probably the same people who like those horrible fanfiction.net stories. And then, of course, there's the most blatantly Mary Sue story ever in anime and manga. Yes, I'm talking about Fushigi Yuugi. Ahhh, Yuu Watase, purveyor of stupid Mary Sue-ish fangirl fantasies... FY is pretty much the formula for a Mary Sue story. Miaka IS a self-insert character, she's every awkward high school girl in any modernized country, who gets pulled into a book with lots and lots of really cute guys with lots of powers and she, and her bitchy friend, are the only females anywhere who aren't old, married, very young siblings or possessed. Well, except for Hotohori's girl, but she barely has any part in the series and is as patheticly angsty as they come. So Miaka arrives and despite the fact she's the most bumbling idiot with a raging appetite since Usagi, she becomes the focus of the entire Universe of the Four Gods and Suzaku's miko. Apparently the poor pheonix God didn't have enough power to summon someone worthwhile. So here she is in the story and, no matter how stupid she is, her hero comes to rescue her and everyone falls in love her but she falls in love with Tamahome because he's the hero because Watase loves him best (though I must say those two idiots deserve each other. FY would be SO much better if they just died halfway through and left the series to the good character) and everything works out in the end cause she has love and stuff and...Gah! Mary Sue and really bad romance novel all in one. Save me! Watase's stories could be very good, they have definite potential. I loved the first, oh, half or so of Ayashi no Ceres. But then the plot dies and it turns into a Miaka/Tamahome story all over again...never mind that they aren't in this series, Aya and Tooya might as well be them. And, am I the only one who's noticed that Watase's females are all obviously intended to represent female strength yet they have no strength of their own and depend on an outside force beyond their control and, often, without their will? Yay! Feminism at its best! OK, enough about that. Turning into a rant again. Then there's games. Aerith, anyone? That girl exists only to be perfect for Cloud and to die tragically with a tragic past. Oh me, oh my! I'm supposed to love her because she's so sweet and cute despite everything. Forget it. I like Tifa better. At least she's got some personality, till the latter part of the game. In fact, most female video game characters tend to be Mary Sues. They exist only as love interests and plot points and are never strong enough to do things their own way. Of course, there are some exceptions to that. Cornet, from Rhapsody, is no Mary Sue. In fact, she has to save the Prince, and she has to overcome challenges and things along the way pretty much by herself. Rhapsody would be a good story for game designers to keep in mind, in terms of strong female characters. Sure, the villains aren't much, but not even guy villains are much these days. There's no comparison between Kefka and Kuja. Sephiroth or Rufus, hardly the greatest villains ever, would crush Seymore and his funky hair like a bug. Luca Blight is the only real recent competition for great villain I can think of. Well...as long as we're on the topic of men, and you knew I'd get here eventually ^_-, lets get to the male version of Mary Sues. They're common in anime and video games as well. We generally call them Tenchi. You know, the bland, boring, useless high school boy who somehow gets all the girls, though he never tries, and manages to beat the villains by pulling some high-level attack out of his *ahem* but then goes back to being completely indecisive and ineffectual back at home when the girls all start fighting over him and nearly tear him to pieces. Yeah, you all know him, so lets not go there. For Tenchi Sue villains we have the pretty silver haired bishies who are really just misunderstood and not REALLY evil, not like Kefka evil, but just needing lots of TLC. And major psychotherapy. The pany villains like Kuja and, to a far lesser extent, most of the recent RPG villains. Can anyone think of a truly great silver-haired bishie villain? Please? I can't. From Lunar to Legaia to Kingdom Hearts they're all only half-arsed villains. No random burning of villages, treating people like pigs, calling a hero a 'son of a submariner' and laughing maniacally. Heck, has there been a truly good villain voice/soundclip other than the Kefka laugh? Sephi's now got the voice of a boyband member, and thus will never be respected as a good villain (though boybands are evil). Great going there Square. All right. There you go. A rant from me on the Mary Sue issue completely ignoring the rampant Mary Sues in fanfiction, including my own, and the non-Mary Sues/Tenchi Sues in other genres. But, lets face it people, Mary Sueism is everywhere. Doesn't mean you have to condone it in fanfiction but don't dondemn someone for writing a Mary Sue fic self-inserting themselves into some series to live out a fantasy and then turn around and tell me Fushigi Yuugi is the best anime ever. The hypocrisy of it all might just make me choke and spit and rant. And then I'll NEVER get around to writing up my fic chapters, cause I'll be too busy bitching in my blog. Eheheheh. ^_^;;;

(Note to self: Stop reading Fic-bitch style reviews. It only makes a person cranky and critical and that's not a good way to enjoy life. Though it does make for a more active blog.)

2002-09-26T21:26:00.000-04:00

(Warning, Kingdom Hearts spoilers!)

Like any good Square fan I've already bought and started playing Kingdom Hearts. Due to several problems, namely lack of transportation, work and my recent Initial D addiction, I didn't get it until last friday and didn't even really start it until Sunday. Well, as things stand now, I'm hours into it and in Agrabah. And I'm returning it as soon as I'm done. This game is horrible. I can think of quite a few problems and almost no redeeming features. This game pretty much runs against all my interests.
First, the characters. While I've nothing against the Disney characters, and in fact think them quite enjoyable in small amounts, this game is entirely centered around them. This is NOT a Disney/Square game. This is a Disney game with a few Square characters introduced to get people to buy it. I was upset with the main party from the start. Why not Sora, a Disney chara and a Square chara? Since this game is supposed to star characters from both, y'know? But, no, the main party reflects the rest of the game. I ended up picking up the guide and, when looking at the list of characters, I felt another unpleasant twang. Every playable character in the game is a Disney character. Every level is a Disney level. Every major character that isn't Disney is new. Joy! Obviously what us Square fans wanted! A chance to play as Donald and Goofy (who's fun in small amounts, annoying in large) and Sora (The surprisingly bland protagonist)! Why would we ever want to actually play as our fave charas? We obviously got enough of *them* in their games. We probably don't have Disney games though! So, OK, out party is made up of our 3 main charas and random others. But there's no reason to even have the others. They don't stay in your party, so having them along is actually a detractor cause they steal levels from Donald and Goofy. And most of them are completely unnecessary. I never had Tarzan in my party, didn't bother me at all. I wonder if Aladdin is good for anything? How about future characters? They never give me any reason to put them in my party. No mention of special abilities or anything. Ultimately I'm going to end up using the same three people through the whole game. Joy? What happened to providing variety? RPGs provide multiple character choices for a reason, so the player gets the freedom to form their own party suited to their own styles. I don't want Donald in my party anymore. Sure, he's a decent mage and now that I've tweaked his settings he doesn't blow all his magic at once, like he did on the 'occasional' setting. I shudder to think of him on the frequent setting. He'd probably be casting magic at random houses as we walked along without enemies in site... Plus that noise he makes when he gets hurt in battle (all the time) is REALLY getting annoying. And Goofy's...well...he's Goofy. I don't have anything bad to say about him, other than the AI problems, but I don't really want him in my party either. Give me Squall and Cloud (Fashion by Vincent!), or even Cloud and Yuffie, or Cid, or...hell, give me Chip 'n Dale. Give me variety people. And not in the form of party members who stick around for one level, until you seal it, and then are never used again. Or maybe they can be used at the end. But that'd be stupid, they'd have no levels. Bah.
OK then, AI. My next big thing. I'm really, really, really getting tired of Donald getting his ass kicked every time we get into a big battle. He's accounted for far more potion uses then my Sora (who, thanks to my skills, needs some help). That's sad. Really sad. I'm not exactly good at defense in this game. It wouldn't be such a problem, though, if those two idiots were smart enough to realize that, hey!, standing right in front of a massive boss enemy between attacks is really stupid! They should, like, move! This was most notable in the fight against Cerebus where, as I ran around the arena like the camera-hating fool I am, they just stood in front of it. Which's where all the attacks were hitting. Hmm... Wonder why they got their butt kicked? And they aren't terribly good attackers either. At least, not that I've noticed. The normal battle are too chaotic for me to watch them and in boss fights I'm busy running for my health or beating up on it myself. Not watching them. But I seem to be doing all the damage to the bosses. My extra chars seem to exist as bait, potion wasters and random enemy taker-outers. Joy! I have useless characters I don't want! This is SO much better than, say, the FFX system! Obviously the new rage in battle system and party organization!
All right, lets set that bit of bitterness aside now. There are many other areas of complaint! My third biggest is the camera system. The @#!$ camera, as I call it. To put it bluntly, it's awful. I've seen other reviews that say that the game is fun, the party is smart (huh?) but the camera is awful. One, maybe two, out of three isn't so bad. In the review, I mean. The camera system is abysmal. There's been several cases where I've arranged a camera angle so that I can see where I'm going to jump (for some reason this helps me) and when I start running ot make the jump, or even worse, once I have jumped, the camera spins. Whee! Watch Sora fall! The Lock-On feature means the camera will keep pointing at the Locked-On enemy...usually...though if you run around alot, which you'll have to, it doesn't work so well. And many of the enemies are so mobile that the camera system can't keep up with both of you anyway. Often, you'll lock onto a random monster, rarely ever the one I really want, only to have it zip past you across the arena or some such. Or, you'll lock onto an enemy, fight it a bit, and, in the confusion, lose it. So you'll be striking at a big mass of random enemies when, suddenly, your main enemy'll move and you'll end up whiffing. Or maybe I just have absolutely no skills at this game. That's a sadly realistic possibility. I'm still not sure if the 'Jump, you f-ing moron!' thing that happens rarely is due to me or the system.
This leads into the battle system. Which I hate. Please never let this be used again. Using magic is annoying, except for the three in the shortcut, since you have to stop attack, scroll down to magic, scroll down to the spell you want, then scroll down to the one you want to cast it on. In high speed battles that's not good. The spells are often hard to hit with and may, in some cases, actually be detrimental to use. Or useless. That's far too often the case. And the summons... I finally got one, Simba, and tried to use it in battle. He did nothing. I had to look it up. Apparently I have to go back down to magic and hold X down, or something like that. Which effectively prevents me from attacking. True, I can run around and hide, but it still seems a bit unnecessary. I mean...summons are supposed to attack, right? And what's with the random enemies appearing while you're battling other random enemies? I mean, sure it's nice for building levels and cash reserves, but when I'm busy dealing with a group of enemies I don't want to have to worry about MORE popping out because I'm running around beating THEM up. And collecting treasure. That's why I fight in the first place! The problem with RPGs is too many random battles. KH's brilliant solution was to...make them even more common! Random battles beginning during other random battles! Yay! The fun! The chaos!
The opening deserves it's own commentary. It puts the characters in their places so obviously. I knew ten minutes into the game Riku was gonna pull a Seifer and go to the other side. Can we say, pathetically obvious? Kairi was, just as obviously, going to become some kind of plot bait. Which's true this far. She hasn't done anything worth existing other than being a love interest. And, from the opening movie, the hero is obviously on some serious drugs, which explains the bland personality. And the end thing at the island...umm...anyone care to explain that? 'Must be a heartless thing' is all I can come up with. But what about Riku? Isn't he still a good guy there? Is he tripping too?
And then there's the plot. Wait, what plot? The entire plot is the summary: King Mickey's missing so D & G are looking for him, bad stuff happened to Sora and co. so Kairi and Riku are missing, and worlds are vanishing so you go to each to save it from the Heartless. There are miniscule plots in each stage, just enough to direct you, but other than that... This isn't an RPG. An RPG is an RPG because it is focused on plot. Or is supposed to be. The plot may be bad, but it's still there. Dungeons and everything are focused on furthering the plot, something important is supposed to happen after each. Perhaps someone can enlighten me to the big plot point that came from Deep Jungle? All that happened in Wonderland is Alice going missing. Ooh! The Coliseum exists as a Battle Arena, not a plot device, so that's no issue. But, thus far, Agrabah has given me nothing. Watch the movies, they're way better.
So, basically, it's all Disney with Square in some VERY minor supporting roles. Why the heck is Aerith alive? Why not use Tifa? Or adapt a chara from some RPG other than 7, 9 and those strange 10 chibis. What's up with Wakka's voice? I want more Squall dammit! Or Leon, or whatever. That whole name thing is just stupid. No one else changes their name, why bother? AI, bad, camera system, horrible, battle system bad, no Square charas in main roles, bad, no one but the main 3 actually having any real amount of screen time, bad, limited party membership, annoying, lack of plot, killer. I'm going to beat it. Dammit, I've come this far, spent this much and it's a big game. Everyone else will beat it. Some will love it. People still love FF8, for more than its pretty boys and CGs. This game is at about the same level. It's obviously geared towards children, since it's totally Disney, but it's far, far too hard for the usual Disney target audience. I'm 20, I don't want to play a game as Donald and Goofy anymore. They're fun, yes, but they don't appeal to my current level of cognitive development. Give me a good Chung Kuo book, or a real RPG. This game isn't one. It's a platformer with a minor plot, a few FF charas and a party system. It's a platformer with RPG *elements*. And I HATE platformers. This thing is going back as soon as I'm done. THe only question is whether I can summon up enough interest to fight through 49 increasingly difficult seeds (Not SeeDs) in the tournament to get to see Sephiroth. Normally I'd say he's worth it, since I am a fangirl. But he's now got the voice of a boyband member and the idea of N'Sync playing a villain, even one as mild as Sephi, is totally incompatible with me. Kuja, yes, Sephi, no. But, on the other hand, Boreanaz's brooding Angel voice fits Squall SO well. And Cloud doesn't sound half bad... But Wakka makes up for that. And who decided to have a male character named Riku when Square's last big release had a female party member named Rikku? It's really weird. OK...so it wasn't a summary, and this was all as much a rant as a review. But that doesn't make it less true and I tried to focus on solid points. And, quite frankly, with all the rave reviews people are going to be throwing around I wanted to get my two cents in. Before all the other jaded old-schoolers come in and begin bitching because the graphics are pretty and the hero actually talks. I like pretty games. I like old games. SNES games are still some of my faves. But I don't like all of them. I don't really like any Final fantasy's before 6, actually. Does that make me a new-schooler? Who cares. Plots were often as insipid back then as they are now. We just have the luxury of pulling out the good ones and holding them up as examples. If this games ends up being used as a good example I'll hurt someone.

2002-09-23T16:47:00.000-04:00

Leah: Here's a questions: Should people moderate blog posts in order to try and avoid offending people?
Shota: I thought blogs were all about offending people? O_o
Leah: >_>
Shota: n.n After all, anything said will offend someone.
Leah: True...
Meiun: Plus, it's fun shocking people. Make them wake up and notice something for once.
Leah: But wouldn't that mean I'd have to wake up and notice something first?
Meiun: Oh, right. Nevermind then.
Shota: Isn't there a common sense set of rules for this? I mean, if you're not deliberately insulting, trying to force others to accept your point of view, seriously threatening to or actually harming someone else physically or mentally, using excess profanity, demeaning any group or speaking all in l33t or HaLf In CaPs it doesn't matter?
Meiun: But she's thinking about the flamers. And flamers have no common sense.
Shota: OK, not deliberately insulting someone specificly.
Leah: Isn't flamers specific?
Shota: Urusai!
Leah: Oh yeah! And avoiding random words in a foreign language simply because the writer-person understands them and thinks they sound cool even though they really can't speak the foreign language in question to any serious extent.
Shota: Like I said. Common sense.
Leah: I'm still keeping the faces! :\
Shota: That's OK. Everyone knows you're an idiot.
Leah: Everyone's an idiot. At least I have a little common sense. And I'm not raving. Raving idiots are annoying.
Shota: ...It's always interesting to see the real standards people hold themselves to. o_o;
Leah: Bah. Standards. They're meant to be minimal. Embrace what little diversity we humans can actually accept! But avoid dirty people. They smell.
Shota: n.n; Y'know, if anyone actually read this you'd get flamed.
Leah: Mmmmmmm, feedback! I crave it! Like sugar! I need cookies! *runs off*
Shota:...
Meiun: Actually, that was a rather reasonable train of thought. For her.
Shota: Yes. -_-
Meiun: Ahh well. Even if she does get flamed they'd just get lost and deleted among her inbox. Unless, of course, the flamers thought to make the Subject line grab her attention. And most of them probably don't pay that much attention.
Shota: ...Hey, is this another omake style one? Could she actually be fulfilling her original promise?
Meiun: But Niki-
Seishirou: *pops in* Yep. *pops out*
Shota: ...Ahhh in-jokes, what a love-hate relationship that is.
Meiun: What're the chances people who've read NMtB on the cffml, and read the omake, are actually reading this?
Shota: Slim to none.
Meiun: So...no one got that?
Shota: Nope. Just the joker.
Leah: WAI! Joker! *runs of for Flame of Recca manga*
Shota: And once again, the point flies right over her head...
Meiun: Mmm...I'm stealing her cookies...
Shota: *sighs*

2002-09-01T21:32:00.000-04:00

Well, after much thought (approx. 20 seconds) I've determined what I'm going to do with at least some of my vacation time I earn every year when I finally get a career-job. Considering how I feel now, when I've only schooling and money-jobs, I'm probably going to go completely insane when I'm forced to work 40 hour weeks, every week, year round, at the same place with the same co-workers. That's OK though, since all Social Workers, and nurses, are insane anyway. We'd all decide to go do something else once we realized how hideously awful the workload is. And all the paperwork involved. BUT...I've decided that I'm going to have to take at least 1 week a year, perhaps more if I don't have any desire/money for a real vacation, I'll take my 'home vacation'. Basically it will involve this: After work my last day I will come home, change into ratty old comfy clothes, make sure I have stocks of snack foods and anime and games, and sit on my butt and do NOTHING for the next week. Well, nothing outside of necessary chores like keeping the house clean enough to be sanitary, keeping myself clean enough to be sanitary and things like cooking or getting more junk food. Because health and junk food are important. But other than that I will do nothing but have fun. And sleep. Ahhh, precious sleep, how I love you so. Unconscious yet alive without pain. The best possible state to be in.

2002-08-25T05:08:00.000-04:00

Summary: Summaries are good because they give us an idea of what we're going to be reading. They help us avoid unpleasant things. If I ever have to read another 'Tasuki and Chichiri spend a long time thinking about how crazy-in-love they've been with the other during the entire series, though they've never admitted it. After they're done pondering, they end up admitting it, realize it's True Love and scromp like bunnies.' or whatever (un)likely couple for whatever series the author is writing about I will scream and rant. And get glared at by my cat for disturbing her sleep. And who thinks up some of these pairings, for gods sake people... (end of summary)

Pet peeve of mine: Fanfiction archives, or even just personal sites, where the stories have no summaries. All readers eventually encounter this problem, if they look around enough. Sometimes these sites are huge, like in GW Addiction. I like that site, it has all kinds of GW (yes, yaoi. I am a fangirl after all) fics. Unfortunately, though it has an extremely large number of people, some of whom have an extremely large number of fics, there are no summaries. None. It tells you the authors name (since the stories are arranged by author), the pairing, the rating, how many chapters, when it's been updated, the authors e-mail address (an essential), and any warnings (such as yaoi, alternative universe, non-con, etc). But no summary, nothing even approaching one. And, really, that's the easiest way to weed out the 'badfics'. If you read a summary like 'this iz my first fic!!! I'm only 13, but i know youll all luv it!' you don't read the fic. At least, if you have any common sense and the writer isn't your friend. If you read a summary where it's obvious that the writer has trouble with English language or grammar you don't read it. This doesn't make them a bad writer, they may be the like of David Eddings in their own language but one must first be able to use a language properly to entertain with it. Common sense there. THere're the summaries where the people are native speakers but still don't understand grammar. This happens. Even to smart, normal people. I had a friend once who couldn't write or type a grammatically correct story to save his life. Typing he couldn't even seem to understand that punctuation and capitalization are what make sentences comprehendible. But you'd never guess it just talking to him, he spoke perfectly well for conversational English. Not like grammar really applies there though. :P But I'm digressing...
The fanfic we do read are the ones that manage to capture our attentions right off. Sure, the first paragraph is important, but it's a summary that we really depend on. If I see yet another 'Duo pesters Heero into admitting that he really does love the loudmouthed annoyance' or '(improbable male 1) and (improbable male 2) suddenly for no good reason come to realize that they've actually been longing for each other the entire series, no matter how unlikely, they're other relationships were just cover and everyone else knows. Something 'strange' happens, they admit their feelings and progress to go at it like bunnies in heat' I know I won't be interested. If I see something like 'After the OAV, Zechs must come to terms with his past and decide what he will do with his future. And who he will spend it with.' I might give it a shot. Sure it'll be cliched, but there is such a glut of GW fanfics there's nothing new. It is an undisputed force of its own, separate even from its creator show.
But summaries aren't just good for helping us avoid cliched fics. They also help us avoid fics we aren't in the mood for. Sometimes dark, ponderous angst fics are good (though, with my CLAMP obsession, I get all the dark ponderous angst I could ever need. And Angelic Layer) but more often than not I want something humorous or fluffy. Fluffy can be good. It seems to works best with het pairs, if only because guys are so rarely fluffy and in character. Ahhh, Kenshin and Kaoru fluff, how I love thy light, fluffy and uncomplicated goodness. Ahem... And they do yet more! They help us avoid pairs or ideas we don't like.
Sure, some archives that lack summaries do give warnings or list the pairings. Many, however, just give an authors name and a list of fics. Seeing a fic for a particular series, say Suikoden, and the warning 'lemon' as my only information doesn't give me enough to go on. Even if you add a 'yaoi' warning or a 'het' warning it doesn't help. There're a lot of possible pairings, for any series. As all readers know, plausibility isn't an issue for fanfic writers. They can not only pair characters that never even meet, exist in different times or cannot possibly exist in the same party (if it's a game, like Star Ocean 2) but they can pair *themselves* with the characters! And many of them can do it without any sense of personal shame. I envy that...not the self-insert thing, the lack of personal shame part. Self-inserts scare me. Most archives avoid those, but what about the pairings I don't like? Let's go back to Suikoden again. Some yaoi pairings are OK, if they're written well. Which they often are, since the series isn't terribly popular yet. But who the *hell* came up with the idea of Luca Blight/Kinnison? How did that pairing ever cross their mind? I don't want to associate Luca with sex of any kind, the only thoughts he usually conjures up are 'AAAAARGH! &@#$ DIE ALREADY!...Oh no, you did NOT just beat down my Flik-baby! DIIIIIE!'. But I may be biased. ^_^;Whatever the case, its pairings like that that make you wish for a summary, so you can at least get a taste for whether it's going to be disturbing or interesting. Is it a new possibility or something that should never have been? A summary won't tell you that, but it'll at least give you an idea of a plot.
And then there're the pairings people don't like, but which are plausible. For example, I hate Kamui/Subaru. I think it's a horrible idea and that they'd be an awful couple. Kamui is too whiny and, after a Certain Event, whiny and useless to really contribute to a relationship. The boy needs LOTS of TLC. The only one who could possibly need more, in fact, is the undisputed Angst King himself, Subaru. If they ever got together they'd spend many a night sitting around moping and reminding each other of their lost love ones and how much life stinks. What fun! And, quite frankly, I don't care for either of them. Sure, manga-Kamui's totally hot, with those killer eyes and leather outfits of his, but he's boring. As for Subaru...I love the Subaru/Seishirou pairing. The interaction between the two of them, rare though it may be in X, is what gives them depth and makes them lovable. I wouldn't love Sei-chan half as much as I do if he didn't have his Subaru-kun, and post-TB Subaru's fairly useless without Sei-chan, so I suppose it's still a good match. ...Oops, wait, there is another contestant for Angst King. Kakyou. But I despise Kakyou possibly even more than Relena, a feat previously thought impossible, so lets not go there.
And there's another reason for summaries; so we can screen out the hate/bashing fics. How often have we seen fics where 2 guys, one or both of whom who have female love interests, who get together and, in the process, show the girl to be a whiny, demanding, possessive bitch undeserving of their love? This is most common in GW, partially because Relena is shown to be obsessed with Heero. But mostly because females in slash fics are usually portrayed as objects of hatred or voyeurs.
And then there's the final purpose of summaries: To help us avoid the scary-squicky or scary-otherwise fics we may otherwise read and be scarred by. Scary-squicky is fairly obvious and often tied to dark angst. Rape fics fall in here and are disgustingly popular. Yaoi or otherwise. Scary-otherwise are harder to spot and most often include pairings or series that should never have been yaoi'd. Like DBZ. If yaoi ever takes me over so much that I find myself liking DBZ yaoi, particularly Gohan and anyone, Goten and Trunks I can kinda, sorta understand, I think I'll kill myself. Or just cut off my web consumption for awhile. Same thing, really. And yaoi is a like a virus, really. Ask any fangirl. We all start out small, with a series or two *coughcoughGundamWingcough* and slowly move on to other series and more and more unlikely pairings until, finally, we find ourselves mentally pairing the boys with the other boys right off. And getting disappointed when the m/m hints don't materialize. [Note to audience, don't mix yaoi and series like Mint na Bokura. You'll be hoping the crossdressing guy gets the boy, not the token female roommate, at the end. And you'll be disappointed. Probably.] It also helps us avoid disturbing things like shotakon (man/boy love, with one of the partners being underage. Underage in yaoi being no more than 12 or 13 usually, from the admittedly few I've ever seen. And they tend to be characters who act more mature than their age, like Li Shaoran from CCS. All CLAMPS 'children' act like miniature adults. Or incest. Because incest is, well, all taboo and bad and disturbing and stuff. Particularly for those of us with siblings @_@

And now I wrap up my long, rambling babble (Too see all major points made in this whole ordeal see the Summary at the beginning) by telling you I'm wrapping it up. How conclusive!

GW Addiction Archive
My page

CLAMP - Rivals with Square as claimants of my eternal soul. The only people who can have more ponderous angst, repeated goings-over of plot points we already got, non-explanations of things they don't want to tell, convenient silences, possible romances that never actually are, gusts of wind and gross religious symbolism than Evangelion. Also, Makona is even more pointless and random then Penpen. Not as cute though.

2002-08-23T01:46:00.000-04:00

Shota: Y'know, for an 'omake style' blog I've noticed very, very little omake.
Leah: Indeed. Apparently I don't actually converse with the voices in my head as much as I feared. I can have entire thoughts, facile as they may be, without consulting an imaginary persona.
Shota: And that's another thing, what kind of person actually uses words like facile when talking? Or thinking. Or whatever.
Leah: Geeks. I also know what Obsequious means, though I can't spell it. I did use facile right, didn't I?
Shota: You can't spell anything.
Leah: For a generation X-er who has had access to and used a computer, and thus spell checker, for as long as she can remember I'm pretty good. I think. Most people, including college student peoples, probably can't read or pronounce facile much less spell it.
Shota: Or obsequious.
Leah: Lets not go there. I tried defining it for a class once. Than I realized most people have no idea what servile means either...Stupid hard to spell words!
Shota: Maybe you should run this blog through a spell checker...
Leah: Perhaps. Just to be different.
Shota: So...the entire point of this blog is to show that you know lots of words?
Leah: And that I can't spell. And that I was lying when I said this'd be omake style. I don't have to deflate my ego yet. Knowing and using big words isn't really a great thing, since I don't use them enough to be pretentious. It's more of an annoyance really, when people, including managers I've worked for, stop and ask me '...What does that mean?'
Shota: Sure. If you say so. *readies the Ego Deflator(tm) anyway*
Leah: n.n;
Seishirou: Mmmm, anime-style smiley faces. That certainly isn't pretentious.
Leah: Shut up you. >_>

2002-08-21T13:05:00.000-04:00

Tuition: $3,632
Board: $2,754
Single room (small): $3,136
Privacy: Priceless

2002-08-21T00:26:00.000-04:00

Minnesotans are weird. ^_^;

2002-08-15T01:25:00.000-04:00

Yes, I'm posting again! Here at least. Trying to keep myself from disappearing online totally again. That's always such a bad thing. Alas I've not gotten over my writers block. If anything, it's getting worse. You know how it goes, the closer you get to the end of an ordeal (an endless, insanely hot summer working at soul-sucking McDs) the longer time seems to drag. Luckily for me I've no more than 8 days left of work. You know a job's bad when I'm happy to be cleaning. -_- I HATE cleaning. Except for the fact that it keeps my mind occupied, to a certain extent, and the whole sanitation factor I'd try to will it outof existence completely. But, then again, I'm a complete and utter slob. Ah well. The end is coming and hopefully I can kick myself out of my whiny, useless mode and back into idiotic updater mode. But, then again, this is just a blog, so I can whine if I want to. ^_^ Ahh, the little things in life. I promise sometime soon I'll try to put something intelligent in here. For a change of pace, y'know. Or maybe make it omake style, like it was supposed to be in the beggining. Who knows. Ideas I lack not, I know what I'm going to do for the next chapters of NMtB and FI but, quite frankly, I'm lacking inspiration for the, y'know, actual writing of it. And, trust me, you do NOT want to see me force my work. I'm shocked I've managed to produce things people like anyway.

2002-08-07T19:01:00.000-04:00

Dear lord! It's been way too long since I posted here, since blogs're supposed to be repositories of thought, no matter how banal or stiltifying. Which means that I haven't been thinking for the past two months I guess. o_o;;; Sadly enough, I think that may be the actual problem. I now have a job at the local McDonalds, staying sane only through the knowledge that on the 27th I am gone! I will have all the money I absolutely need to survive this next semester leaving me leaisure to find a job at school for fun money, rather than the panicked 'dear lord I have no cash and am paying half of incredibly high college bills now and...eek, need money!' situation I had last year. Y'know, the same sorta place most college goers are? The onees who don't have their parents paying for everything? Though, to tell the truth, my parents did pay my entire bill first year to make up for my lack of saving foresight despite the fact I'd had jobs on and off for a few years. All that money, somehow, ended up getting me anime and games rather than in savings. Oh well, I've managed this far. Though this summer has been draining, with complete inertia wearing on me for the first half and work draining all thought now. >_< Oh well, hopefully returning to school willget me back into ficcing mode. Heaven knows that's where I do most my writing, sitting in class bored senseless. Come to think of it, if I could get a quiet corner of work with a desk, paper, pen and any free time work'd be the perfect place for ficcing. Stupid fast food places! If only I could've gotten an office job... Oh well...

Yes, this is a post just bemoaning my fate. But it's also a step towards actually posting things online again and a sort-of explination for why I haven't been updating. Plus it proves I'm still alive, around and interested. Hopefully more substantial updates on my actual page will follow.

2002-06-24T03:20:00.000-04:00

Hmm, well, been done with Ico awhile. Definitely a fun game, though I can't say there's much replay there. At least for me. Am currently trying to play Maximo, since I've heard such good things, but that's completely failed to click with me. Games where you can't save often or easily go against all my RPG-based gaming instincts. I *need* to save, at least occasionally. Makes me nervous otherwise. Too much risk of losinghours of hard work and then having to do it all over again. -_- At least I don't have to level up, that's getting more and more boring as time passes. I suppose that's sort of an even difficulty balance though, I fight less random monsters but I've more experience (which actually does matter in RPGs, if there's any challenge involved) to form my strategies. Ahh well. My other PS2 games aren't going so hot either. Of course, I only have a few, since I'm not-exactly-rich and just got my own PS2...plus there aren't that many great PS2 games out yet and Blockbuster never has the right ones. I do love Okages style though, if only the battle system wasn't so darn endless. Guilty Gear X's Dizzy slaughters me on anything but 'unweaned baby' mode. I don't know why, I'm actually pretty good at the first GG, I've gotten through the game without continuing with Sol and managed to win the extra charas without cheating, but for some reason, perhaps raised difficulty, Dizzy whomps me. I can get to her without too much trouble, but fighting her... x_x Doesn't help I'm fairly pathetic at fighting games anyway. Puzzlers I'm good at though. ^-^ Devil May Cry is another game I'm having issues with. I've gotten all the way to the very end without too much trouble, thank god for Holy Waters!, but the final stage is kicking my arse. Stupid slime things! Will they never end! @_@ Gah...
...What, you were expecting something insightful and witty? Not at 3 am sweetie, sorry. I haven't been feeling particularly witty lately anyway, probably due to lack of mental stimulation now that school's out. Plus I've been reading so much. :| As for my fics, if anyone from my site has wandered here, they'll be up in their own time. I'm in the middle of a huge slump and, trust me, the last thing anyone wants is for me to try and force out a chapter. Forced writing's always end up so ugly. Well, I'm done ranting, I think I'll sleep now. n.n

2002-06-12T22:49:00.000-04:00

Agh. Ico. -_- This game has been consuming my gaming time for the past few days.It's fun, really, even though the princess is useless. Oh, wait, no, she opens doors. So she's as useful as a key. Of course, I pretty much treat her like one, dragging her around like I do. It's necessary! Otherwise she'll just wander confused and helpless until the shadow things come after herand, meeting no resistance or anything, since she is a princess, drag her off. Yes, well, she's OK, as long as you aren't looking for, say, personality. She barely even speaks despite the length of the game. The Shadow Queen, who so far has been pathetically non-existent as a villain, has about as much to say as her. And all she she's done is close gates on me! Oh well, maybe at the end I'll see more. The plot itself is nice, what's there. There seems to be some plot going on, though not really much. Really, the whole point is escaping. Story is secondary.
Not that escaping is easy. This place is extremely pretty, for such a bland sort of environment, everything's stone except where there's water. Two of the major areas are even precise symmetrical opposites of each other! But it's all good, and very pretty. And the clues are nice and subtle. Took me about a half hour to get to that stupid first save point. -_- I managed to get her down easy enough but figuring how to get her out... It was actally a 'hey, there seem to be no switches, why don't I try ---' that worked. Much to my delight. The enemies are good, they're smart enough that you can't sleepwalk your way through a battle, a nice change for an RPG nut like me, they aren't repetative since they're all different, but at the same time they aren't too hard. Ico has the enemy thing down almost perfectly, if they were any harder I'd lose annoyingly often, any weaker and it'd be boring. The only problem I have with the game, except perhaps the lack of plot though, as I've said before, that's actually rather secondary since the story is about escaping, is the camera angles. I am a horrible jumper, that's why platformers get me. I'm used to RPGs and, except Xenogears darn Babel tower, jumping isn't ever really a major factor. But here... There are only a couple camera angles that get me, and I manage to get past them in a few tries, but it's still annoying. It's an artificial sort of diffculty. It's bad enough I have to try and jump way far and on time between the handing wooden platform things, but must I line that second jump, the one that always gets me though the others are easy, just right AND time it? Maybe it's just me though, of course it's hard to make the angles perfect in every stage. I do prefer the more natural difficulties though, like with the Windmill. That took me a bit but it wasn't because I had to worry about jump just enough forward and too the right, not straight forward, or straight to the right unless I have it lined up perfect. And timed right. But, overall, I have to say I really like this game, I'm even playing it, or rather, pausing it, as I type...oh dear...Now what do I do? *sigh*

2002-06-06T20:38:00.000-04:00

One has to wonder, what exactly is 'the good life'? According to the media and my peers it's clubbing, drinking, drugging and having sex on a pretty much nightly basis. This is the 'young peoples'' good life, not to be confused with the 'rich peoples'; or the 'sugar daddy'' good lives. Of course, on the other hand, the government and older people are telling me that drinking, drugging, having sex and techno (the basis of clubbing) are things I Should Not Be Doing. Because they're bad for me, just as everything else in existence is bad for me. Sex is dangerous, drugs ruin your life and either kill you or leave you looking incredibly scary, like you've been preserved (As the lead singers for various older rock bands have shown us). Cigarettes are bad, they ruin your lung capacity, make your voice all icky and, eventually, will kill you if nothing else catches you first. Drinking makes you an old, beer bellied alcoholic with lots of kids and no cash. Eating fast food makes you fat and gives you no nutrition, all the food that's good for you is hard to find, tastes bland compares to the processed stuff, is expensive and hard to find. Plus, eating only healthy things makes you a yuppie. Chocolate, despite being the greatest discovery EVER, makes you fat and the real stuff, not that fake Hershey's choco, is expensive, at least over here. Ah, to live in Switzerland. Being a nerd means you have little social skills, are unlikely to date much and, most likely, can kill any conversation with a non-nerd just by participating. Being a jock means that you're obsessed, to varying degrees, with physical appearance and performance and less so with intelligence (unless you're one of the Perfect People, in which case everyone hates you for being so darned perfect). We've all know the common opinions on Popular people, brown-nosers and the scholarly-yet-not-quite-nerdy. So what is the good life? Is there any real ideal? What is 'normal'? Can we do anything without having to worry over how dangerous it is?
My norm is incredibly boring. I sit around the house, fighting the urge to snack, go to school or work when necessary and, for the most part, cocoon myself in my life of dull-ness. I don't drink, I don't sleep around, I've never done drugs, and I don't know any good clubs.
Ryan, the son of my parents friends and a person I've known off and on since he was six months old and I was born, has a completely opposite life. No college for him, he works at a pizza place in the day and parties by night. Lives at home, with his own room in the basement right by a door, his mom still cooks for him and when I've seen him, only occasionally since we've moved, over the past years he's been constantly on his cellphone or with his, rather cute, friend. A perfect example of the 'young peoples'' life. though I hear he may actually be moving out at some point, I'm not sure.
Well, here's an answer that most of you probably wouldn't make first time around. It all depends on the amount of social contact you require. Well, that and the type of people you like. I, for example, require little social contact with others. Talking to people in class, communicating with a few friends, mostly online, and occasional get togethers are all I require, now. Barely 3 years ago I was constantly hanging out with one friend, we became each others families 'second daughters' in a sense, but that fell apart when high school ended and we changed with our lives. Who knows where I'll be after college, when I'll be an active Social Worker, hopefully, trying desperately not to get burned-out and hopeless as I see the horrors our society glosses over. My web site and this blog help too, providing me with at least the illusion that something I say is getting read and, perhaps, even thought over. But, and back to the elusive and ephemeral opening question, what is the good life?
For me it's anime cons. Otakon and Katsucon are the only two I go to, being a Marylander with limited resources and no drivers liscense. But they're perfectly spaced, six months apart, allowing me to scrape up just enough cash to go and buy my trinkets, now that I have people living nearby I can stay with. I've noticed over the past couple cons I no longer go for the stuff, though I do love my trinkets, or the anime. Most of what they show I've seen, or aren't interested in, and the music videos are starting to blend together. Particularly the drama ones, and whatever Anime of the Year takes up most of the tickets in the competition. I swear, if I have to see one more boring Cowboy Bebop or Trigun...I'll just sit through it and wait for something good, like always. No, that isn't what I go for. Now I go for the people. The people I know from online, who I never get to see except at these events. The people I used to know, the guys I've flirted with, the friends from school I never see anymore. The guys I will flirt with. For that is one of the joys of the con, it's filled with people who like the same things I do. Not exactly, but exactly would be boring. And the guys who think that watching DBZ and Akira makes them otaku are easy to recognize, particularly in conversation. And, as a reasonably attractive female with a penchant for leg-baring outfits and a love of flirting, it's really not that hard to find someone to talk to, provided I can make up my mind. Cons are filled with possibilities. Do I go watch this anime or that? Do I check out the videogame room, or roam the Dealers floor and listen to the J-pop? Do I get together with all the people I know online, primarily guys, or do I flirt? Do I talk to the friends I haven't seen in forever or I do I just let our past connection fade gracefully? Do I have the manic energy of a hummingbird on speed or...wait, that's a given. Do I go to the dance or not, is another question. I can't dance, but that isn't really a requirement since we're all just shaking our butts and waving our arms around anyway. Gotta get there early though, before everyone pairs off. That way I can work my way through my initial 'i have no idea what I'm doing!' panic and have fun. Or, instead, do I hang out with friends, watch some late night thing and, perhaps, doze off leaning on someone's shoulder? But, well, now this has turned into a way for me to muse on what I like to do.
But, come to think of it, isn't this a lot like the 'young peoples'' good life? People I know, dancing, flirting, drinking (though non-alcoholic, due to age) and watching movies? But among people who're primarily 'geeks' or other outsiders? Only twice a year, for a weekend, not every night?
The Good Times are where you find them baby. They're transient and, in a few years, when they're less new and adventerous, when you have the dangers of getting rooms, passes, getting there and back, finding everyone, to a science you'll move on. If you're 'boring' that just means that your Good Times are less dangerous, though still exciting, and the consequences will be friends with stupid stories like 'remember that one idea you had for a fanfic/skit/whatever? You know that really embarassing one?' that make you want to cringe and go through the floor, rather than being dead or, heaven forbid, preserved by some random mixture of drugs. But, well, who am I to say that. Who knows, maybe four years from now I'll have done the unthinkable, what I've always said I'd never do.
Yes, maybe four years from now I'll have learned to dance.

2002-06-05T22:51:00.000-04:00

Agh, my computer must've eaten my previous blog. -_- Windows ME and AOL, the unholy duo. I realy should get around to installing XP someday, ah well. Alas, no ficcies for people yet. I'm still trying to find some sort of routine and a job, which'll probably give me one anyway. No waking up at 1 pm and staying awake until 4 with a regular work schedual; no indeed. Ah well, not much to say today. I'm not really thinking too much, at least not thoughts of any real import. Just sitting around reading and hoping my brother didn't eat that last pizza. <_< It will be mine. Ja ne!

2002-06-01T23:53:00.000-04:00

Well, I've finally seen Star Wars ep 2. Only about three weeks after it opened! And I'm actually a fan of the series, if a rather low key one. Thankfully most of it was better than episode one, even if the 'love' scenes did almost ruin my respect for Amidala. She falls in love with Anakin, who she hasn't seen since he was way too young to be love interest material, because whenever he's around her he gets all intense, whiny and pouty. Mmm, yes, I know I get turned on when a guy starts whining about how *he* is suffering with a crush that, if acted upon, would possibly ruin both our lives and cause major scandal and how could *I* let him suffer so even though I don't seem bothered at all. Padme shows about as much interest in him, even during the kissing scenes, as she does Yoda. Hell, she shows more respect to Jar Jar than Ani. And what's with that outfit she's wearing for the fireplace scene? I mean, if you're really trying to stay 'just friends' with a guy and you typically wear more flowing cloth than whole countries, why would you suddenly change to tight, rather skimpy, breast baring leather? No wonder poor Anakin's confused. On the other hand, I love Ewan McGregor in his role, even if he does have a beard. And, of course, there are the Fetts. Chibi-Boba! Yoda fighting (we now call that scene the 'cricket on speed' one) and Chibi-Boba, enough to make me see any movie. And I've determined that the Imperials and lightsabers have the coolest music/sounds, respectively. It was a bit slow though, hopefully the pace will pick up in the third. So, in short, more fights, less broody Anakin, more Yoda battles and more Amidala fighting. It's always nice when the girls get to prove they have skills too.
Oh, and the clones were very cool. Did I mention I like the Fetts?

2002-05-31T19:49:00.000-04:00

Leah: Wah, I'm blogging! ^_^
Shota: Eh? This should be interesting. Let's see how long you can keep it up.
Leah: Meanie...anyway, for those of you not on the cffml, lemme explain. This blog will be omake style! Meaning that I, and the voices in my head (note: we authors normally call them 'muses'), will be babbling here. For your enjoyment. Or not. Whatever.
Meiun: Or until Leah gets bored or has nothing left to say.
Shota: She can talk forever, so that last is unlikely.
Leah: Anyway, unlike my omake this will be about anything and everything. Yay. And, since the omake thing started with Never Meant to Be, they'll probably show up more than my other characters.
Shota: Expecially since you gave one character the same name as you.
Leah: >_>; Yes, that could be a problem.
Shota: Expect the emoticon thing to come and go. She really likes them.-_-
Leah: Hush. Anyway...Just remember, I'm the real person here. Though my name isn't Leah...I just think it's a cool name.And my names, first and last, are not only really hard for others to spell or pronounce, but trigger every spell checker ever created. And being an American with the name Torrey would probably get me a few bad pun jokes if I had History majors for friends. If you understand the reference (hint: Tory) you're a history major and I want to know what you find so interesting about dates. And kings who all have the same name. -_-
Shota: Getting offensive there...
Leah: Eh, flames count as responses.
Shota: Wonderful. Blog, the new area to beg for reviews.
Leah: Or babble to friends. My blog's just a way for me to speak my mind where it's acceptable to be completely irrelevant and no obvious plotthread is required.
Shota: Yippee.
Leah: Indeedy-do. Now, back to not-working and *eyes a handful of hand-written story* Not-finishing chapters...I should probably get something of substance up soon, before people wonder.
Shota: Why change your habits now?
Leah: That's all for this time folks. Check back later for more irrelevance. And, stuff.