STFU.

No, really. Shut the fuck up. I am so GODDAMN SICK of checking my flist and finding spoilers, fake or otherwise, and childish, inane reactions to things that haven't even been confirmed. I have no problem with the book spoilers myself and would in fact welcome some solid indication of what's to come in the finale, but the amount of wank and bitchery I'm finding makes me indiscriminately hate everyone who has ever watched the show.

I've been poking around on comms and forums for the better part of the day and the sheer number of people who've said, "If *insert stupid squashed-up pairing name* happens I'm gonna curse Bryke/hunt them down/stop watching/write my own fanfic AU of season three/throw up/slash my wrists!" make me want to smash my head through my monitor. Put that with the reaction to sheer speculation for events of the finale ("Wow, super anticlimatic, Bryke suck!", "I hope ___ dies, if they don't it'll be shit, Bryke suck!" and my favourite, "I'ma just gonna pretend that Avatar got cancelled after 'The Crossroads of Destiny'. Also, Bryke suck.")

Hypocritical of me? Probably. I know I tend to be in love/hate relationships with my fandoms. But this is a fandom-wide plague and it's such a kick to the teeth for the creators of this amazing show. Sit down, shut up and fucking wait for something factual to be presented - preferably the actual episodes in question, but book content (a proper summary, scans/photos) would work as well.

Badly done, fandom. Very badly done.

I think that anyone who knows me is familiar with my disinclination to read yaoi. I've never sought it out nor been particularly taken by it when it is plonked in front of me. Watching two guys WHO HAVE NO INTEREST IN WOMEN getting it on holds no appeal for me and I have to say I've never much seen the point.

Anyway, I was looking for manga to read yesterday and somehow came across an amazing picture of some dude called Shiki from some random game. It took me a bit longer to find the series he was from, but I managed to find a manga based upon it and just when I was about to download it, I noticed that it was a yaoi series. My face went from :D to :( before I caught myself and thought, "Hang on, maybe I'm actually a prejudiced and hypocritical bitch who never gives things a chance!" With that in mind, I grabbed the two available chapters...and was immediately hooked.

Those in the know will probably already be going, "Huh, Togainu no Chi, OLD NEWS" but for those who didn't immediately click, let me say this.


The tension between Akira and Shiki is obvious from their first meeting...

The character design just floored me (even if Akira keeps making me think he's Squall, why do they have identical coats?!), everything is so clean and appealing and the two chapters of the manga I've read (the ZERO series, not the other one, I don't like its art as much) gave me just enough information on the world and the characters that I'm hanging out for more. Has anyone played the game and if so, is it worth checking it out? Or are there more manga chapters out there and they're just in a seekrit place? Oh, and does anyone icon the series, I've found a couple of pictures but I know there must be more, some of those CGs are stunning.

It's been a while since a brief snippet of a series has intrigued me so much and I can honestly say I've never been this taken by anything with BL in it. Please tell me I'm not alone in thinking that Togainu no Chi is the most beautiful thing EVAR. Because it just might be.

Also are there other BL series out there with gorgeous artwork like this? I tried downloading some random series but holy shit I couldn't stop laughing, why is one of them always crying?! IF IT HURTS SO MUCH STOP DOING IT D: D: D:

So it may have been my birthday today. (Happy birthday also to my emotionally crippled friend, Tsukimori Len!) I may have been born on this day twenty-four (!!!) years ago. Usually birthdays are days of celebration for coming into the world and for getting this far in life and for the receiving of truckloads of presents etc. But Bek, I hear you ask, how did you spend most of your day?

WHY, TAKING A FUCKING EXAM, OF COURSE.

So yeah, the day kind of got off to a bad start. Did I want to apply pyschoanalytical, modernist and post-colonial literary theory to a variety of texts? Hmm, let me think. NOT REALLY. But too bad, so sad! And then my mum rang and went off on tangents and when I tried to interrupt and tell her something she got the shits and told me she'd talk to me later, when I was feeling up to being civil. And then a few of my friends who I invited to my bday party couldn't make it. And then my phone battery was about to die - not a good thing, when I was still expecting a few people to call for directions - and I got a call from my dad only it was his daughter and she was all, "HEY BEK WHAT PRESENTS DID YOU GET?!" and when I went "None!" in a bitter tone of voice she couldn't believe it and kept talking and wasting my phone battery! I even said, "Hey Shannon, my phone is about to die, I better go," she went, "Oh, okay, and anyway I broke my arm three months ago..." while I silently raged and scowled at some innocent passer-bys.

The day/night improved when we met at Hog's Breath for dinner even though I actually don't like them that much because they always manage to fuck up my steak. How hard is it to make a steak WELL DONE? You just throw it on the grill and burn the life out of it. Steak + fire + long time = well done. Every single time I've been to Hog's Breath the steak comes out and it's pink and bleeding in the middle. If I wanted raw steak, I'd just rip open a package of it with my own teeth.

Anyway there were fourteen of us in the end, which was a pretty good turn out considering I'm an anti-social hermit, and I also reeled in the best present haul I've had in a very long time, which included about $130 in cash, a $25.73 amazon.com gift voucher (my friend said that amount appeared to him "in a dream"; I looked at him a little askance), a $20 Borders voucher and an awesome writing notebook and the first series of Life on Mars on dvd. Oh, and Amy baked me TWO CONTAINERS OF CUPCAKES. How awesome are my friends?!

I guess the moral of the story is that even bad days can have happy endings, and even though I'm another year older, at least I had a fun dinner.

Even if my steak was pink and bleeding. ;_;

In regards to those Avatar spoilervids floating around, excuse me while I just say OH FUCK YES. While Zuko is nowhere near my favourite character, the fact that the rest of the series seems to be ALL ZUKO ALL THE TIME isn't actually bothering me particularly. Either I've become a more accepting person, or Zuko has become a more appealing person, or (and this is the most likely) it's been so long since the last episode that I don't care who they give us clips of as long as they show us someone, anyone. The rest of the series could be about The Duke at this point and I'd be so grateful there was actual animated Avatar I'd be on my knees sobbing thankfully to the Nickelodeon gods.

Of which I am quite certain there are none.

In other news, I still haven't gotten around to watching GSD yet. I keep thinking of those giant, almost-identical robots punching each other in outer space and I get all clammy because I know I won't be able to tell them apart, even though I do want to know what happens to the characters later down the line. On one hand, I could satisfy my curiosity and indulge in my newly-discovered attraction to awkward lolmecha. On the other, I'd be crippled by my pathological confusion regarding shounen fight scenes. WHAT TO DOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?!

I KNOW, MAKE A LIST.

*WORK Awesome conversation between my boss and I last week, I forgot to relay it here. We were talking about the drawer we store the PC games in - they get put into little plastic sleeves and since most of the booklets have cd keys on them, we're supposed to put the booklets with the disc. Someone *coughAntheaandJonocough* hasn't been doing that, and Dave was getting a bit annoyed.

Him: I really hate how we have to search for lone ranger booklets, it's much easier if everything's just put together in the first place.
Me: Hey, I know I'm criminally lazy and cut corners whenever possible, but putting the booklets with the discs is like the only thing I do do.
Him: Yeah, I know you do it, but man, those other guys...
Me: Oh, Amy definitely does it, she's had a go at me a couple of times about finding them without the booklets. She's anal like that.
Him: That's cool, I like anal.
Me: Yup, same.
*awkward silence*
Him: Uh...
Me: Oh...
Him: Well, shit.

In my head I was all, "BRB LOLING FOREVER".

*ANIMU Special A ep 2 was pretty good but not as funny as the first and I think they got the pacing in the actual wrestling match a bit wrong - I felt it dragged unnecessarily. If Kei keeps giving these long-winded demonstrations of his love anime!Hikari will come across as even more dense than her manga counterpart and I DIDN'T THINK IT WAS POSSIBLE.

Vampire Knight ep 2 was ultimately forgettable. I'm not joking, I watched it yesterday and I can't even remember what happened. Aidou continues to be the winner in the manga-to-anime transition stakes, he's still looking awesome, and Ichijo is probably a close second. Zero still sounds tired, Kaname still sounds wispy, and I can't look at happy!cheerful!Yuuki of these early days without thinking of how she is in the manga at the moment and feeling a bit disappointed. If you're current, you'll know what I mean. ;_;

* MANGA I don't leave the house these days without taking a couple of volumes from my manga collection because the bus situation at the moment is just ridiculous, I've had to wait for over an hour on several occasions. The last few days I've been going through Fruits Basket from vol 16, I started an epic re-read of it a while back but crumpled under the pressure at around the play. I finished it again last night and it was great to read it in published form as opposed to scanlations - maybe I was looking in the wrong places but it actually made sense this time. My heart broke again for Momiji, but apart from that, I think it ended pretty solidly and I'm glad she didn't drag it out any longer, I probably would have just snapped. I bought vol 2 of Blade of the Immortal today as a precursor to the animu coming up and as a bit of an early birthday present to myself. Sure, I buy a lot of manga, but I rarely splurge on BotI because it's so damn expensive. By next birthday, I aim to have at least THREE volumes!

* REAL LIFE It's amusing now, but at the time...

Last night a group of friends and I went out for a birthday dinner for another friend. We met at around 7pm outside the restaurant and because she'd invited a few cliques there was at least fifteen of us by the time they all arrived. We went up and were seated in the restaurant by about 7:15, were presented our menus by 7:20, and had ordered our meals by 7:30. It's a Chinese restaurant, and while there were a few other large groups of people, there were probably only eight other occupied tables. It's a big hall-like kind of place that would easily sit a couple of hundred people, so they were hardly overrun.

Time passed, and because I hadn't caught up with these friends for a while we had a fair bit to talk about, so we didn't really keep an eye on how much time was passing. Eventually, the hollowness in our stomachs made itself known, and we checked our collective watches only to realise it was now 8:30 and our entrees still hadn't arrived. We waited a bit longer to give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe they were too busy, but then we noticed that groups of people who had come in after us had already been served THEIR MAINS.

More time passed, and finally at 9:15 - nearly two hours after we'd ordered - SOME of our entrees were brought out. Yes, SOME. I got mine, but _the_dark_room_ didn't get his, and he was also the tragic victim of a double-shafting when one of the waitresses came out and asked who ordered a "*mumble* chicken". He asked if it was the crispy chicken; she said no, and asked again if anyone had the "*mumble* chicken" Since he was the only one with chicken, he specified another part of the chicken and she nodded this time before saying, "Anyway, we don't have it."

GEE, DO YOU THINK YOU COULD HAVE TOLD US THAT TWO HOURS AGO?!

In the end, na_ru_ta_ru went up and and complained quite vehemently, refusing her meal when it was FINALLY brought out, and we left at about 9:45 after scarfing down the food that they did deign to serve us. In a bitter twist, my meal was delicious and if the service hadn't been absolutely abismal, I would definitely have had it again. As it was we got a reasonable discount and a couple of free items but my image of the restaurant *coughKingofKingsinChinatown* has been forever tarnished. I can't help but feel sorry for the girl whose birthday it was - her meal was one of the elusive ones that never managed to make it out of the kitchen. What terrible luck. :(

* RANDOM Just when I thought Rick Astley couldn't get any more awesome, wiki serves up this gem: In a March 2008 interview, Astley said that he found the rickrolling of Scientology to be "hilarious"; he also said that he will not try to capitalize on the rickroll phenomenon with a new recording or remix of his own, but that he'd be happy to have other artists remix it.

Rick, you are a better man than I. I'd be on the coattails of that meme faster than a rabid Zutarian on the implications of those Avatar vids.

SORRY GAIZ I COULDN'T RESIST. XD

Oh, Cooking with Christopher Walken, why you gotta be so funny?!

Anyway, seems like I haven't updated in a while - I've been pretty much immersed in an epic shoujo manga re-read (fifty+ volumes, at least I tallied it up for glance_inward and it seems to be one hundred and fifty+ volumes. Fuck I have no life.) that crossed the line from appreciation of the genre to all-out ridiculousness. I don't understand how those bland, cliched plots keep seducing me over and over again, but somehow I just can't seem to drag my eyes away from the trials and tribulations of high school girls and their awkward romantic hijinks. Would anyone be interested in a top ten/twenty/fifty? I keep meaning to do pimp posts for my favourite series but then I remember how much effort is involved in a good pimp post and I shrivel up a little inside.

Aside from that, we had our annual anime con last week and I took about four photos that I may one day upload. My camera is on the blink and every time I tried to take a picture the screen had green lines running over it which as you can imagine led to difficulty with aiming/framing/capturing an image. One of the photos was of me and my friend Amy from work, she of the STUPID BOYFRIEND WHO I HATE and the other three were of JAMES KYSON LEE who some of you will recognise as Ando from Heroes. Yeah, that's right, ANDO. FROM HEROES.

He did a question and answer session and while I didn't really have any expectations of him, his humour and easy-going nature really blew me away. He was absolutely fantastic, really friendly and personable and I can say in all honesty I've never 'met' a celebrity as entertaining as he was. He said something about hoping that Ando is the secret evil mastermind of the series and I fucking hope that turns out to be the case because the man deserves a raise, some more screentime and a spinoff show of his own - HE IS THAT AWESOME. And surprisingly good-looking as well; they must dress him down on Heroes because in casual clothes and with a better hairstyle he was absolutely smokin'. I KID YOU NOT.

Aside from that the con was incredibly underwhelming - Jewel Staite was there but she has blonde hair now and I found it rather unattractive, and there were a handful of American voice actors but my one true love CRISPIN 'I ONLY HAVE ONE VOICE BUT BY GOD DO I KNOW HOW TO USE IT' FREEMAN wasn't there so I didn't care about them. The merchandise that was there was pretty crappy and all Geass-related and the only place that sold Chuang-Yi manga this time around was Madman, usually I target the Tamarket stall but they had a disappointing spread with no manga to be found. Farewell, the two volumes of Otomen I had planned on purchasing, may we meet again one day.

And then I did nothing for about a week until Sunday night when I was struck by the sudden and disturbing urge to watching Gundam Seed. Why? I DON'T FUCKING KNOW. The only Gundam series I'd ever watched before was Wing and I only did that because I had nothing else to do - I actually suffer from Shounen Retardation Syndrome (SRS) which means I have a great deal of difficulty in following shounen series because a) I get easily confused in fight scenes, especially in manga when there are just silhouettes with motion lines (I'm looking at you, D.Gray-Man) and b) I can't keep track of mecha models or tell them apart. So when two almost-identical-except-that-one-has-red-stripes-and-the-other-has-blue-stripes gigantic humanoid machines are battling in space, I'm pretty much lost. This leads to me zoning out during battle sequences and tuning back in with no understanding of what's just gone on.

I explained this handicap to Molly who asked, "Why do you even read/watch shounen stuff then?!" and all I can say is that I'M TRYING TO OVERCOME MY DISABILITY OKAY? Also lolmecha, does it ever stop being funny?! Wing was pretty, if unintentionally, hilarious and Seed is no different, it seems I just can't get enough of phallic space imagery and stupid names, wtfffffffff everyone in Seed except for Andrew Waltfeld. In fact, I'm so enarmoured by phallic space imagery and stupid names that I marathoned all of Seed in three days and while I'm now physically and emotionally drained I'll probably punish myself by tearing through Destiny because I'm a masochist for scrunched up faces and random terminology. "Code green in the b quadrant of the blue delta, distance at 13 omega gamma fucking kappa" <--- where do they pull this crap from?!

Anyway, I still don't understand what it is about Seed that appeals to me as I didn't really feel a connection to any of the characters except maybe Mwu because seriously the man is a FUCKING PIMP. It's a given that any character portrayed by Takehito Koyasu will have pimp-like qualities but hot damn my list of favourite characters is easily topped by Mwu and followed only by an immeasurable chasm after which I could probably consider Andrew and Dearka and maybe Athrun when he's not wearing fugly clothes ie that yellow skivvy. ATHRUN, YOU ARE NOT A WIGGLE. D:

I'm toying with going straight into Destiny or watching/reading something else so I don't end up becoming a Gundam-addicted recluse. Thoughts and advice in this time of internal confusion would be much appreciated. ♥~

I didn't have anything to do while everyone was MIA due to the strike, so I finally got around to reading the released chapters of Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro. I started the anime earlier in the week and while I quite liked it, I felt it left a lot of things unexplained, so I thought I'd check the manga out. The first couple of chapters made this quite painful, as the art is really awkward looking and Sasazuka in particular (who I love, the man is a PIMP) always had his head tilted sharply to the side for some reason, making him look a little bit deformed. Like this.

I really like Sasazuka and Yako's interaction, and after a while I found myself shipping them a bit. (Oh come on, it's as likely as Neuro/Yako, and that seems to be almost accepted! :D) That realisation, coupled with some interesting shipping debates raised by sg1padawan made me pick up this meme when I was journal-hopping.

Comment to this entry with any fandom. If I'm knowledgeable enough in the fandom to have ships, I'll tell you one non-canon ship I like, one canon ship I like, and one ship I really don't like (either canon OR fanon). Then post this in your own journal to offer up the same responses.

A slight edit to that: post your fandoms anyway - if I don't know enough to explain my ships, I'll do a google search and put some random characters together and you can lol at how ridiculous (or, perhaps, how awesomely plausible!) that pairing would be.

TALK TO ME I'M LONELYYYYYYYYY

I went out for dinner last night, which was great at the time but cause for regret when I woke up at FOUR A.M. THIS MORNING WITH HEARTBURN AND STOMACH CRAMPS. I tossed and turned for an hour, took some lady tablets (mmm hmm) since I didn't have any indigestion stuff, and then gave up at 5am and watched the Kate Beckinsale version of Emma, which I'd had hanging around for a while but never managed to find the time to watch.

From what I've seen on the interwebs, Emma is far from being ol' Jane's best loved work, which makes me sad because it's easily my favourite of her novels and I blame Emma and Mr Knightley's relationship for my kink for hot guys who are also friends of the family. HELL YES.

Anyway, I didn't hate the Gwyneth version, but I did rather like Kate's interpretation - I found her a lot more immature and willful, which I think was an important aspect of her character - and Mark Strong's Mr Knightley was as handsome and principled as he should have been. The only things I could fault was the way they glossed over Harriet's series of attractions (this was downplayed to the point of being an almost obsolete plot point, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, since I've always hated the treatment of Harriet) and the omission of a key exchange between Emma and Mr Knightley that always made my heart flutter in the book.

He had been in love with Emma, and jealous of Frank Churchill, from about the same period, one sentiment having probably enlightened him as to the other. It was his jealousy of Frank Churchill that had taken him from the country.—The Box Hill party had decided him on going away. He would save himself from witnessing again such permitted, encouraged attentions.—He had gone to learn to be indifferent.—But he had gone to a wrong place. There was too much domestic happiness in his brother's house; woman wore too amiable a form in it; Isabella was too much like Emma—differing only in those striking inferiorities, which always brought the other in brilliancy before him, for much to have been done, even had his time been longer.

BUT it made up for it by subtly putting in this interaction, which to me is the moment where Mr Knightley shows just how much he loves Emma.

He took her hand;—whether she had not herself made the first motion, she could not say—she might, perhaps, have rather offered it—but he took her hand, pressed it, and certainly was on the point of carrying it to his lips—when, from some fancy or other, he suddenly let it go.—Why he should feel such a scruple, why he should change his mind when it was all but done, she could not perceive.—He would have judged better, she thought, if he had not stopped.

*sighs happily* Oh, how easily I am soothed by romantic fiction.

And to make this post more exciting, a meme poached from sg1padawan:

SEVEN QUESTIONS: fill in the blanks, be creative, help me procrastinate. ♥

1. What do you think of ________________?

2. When did you last ____________?

3. __________ or ___________ and why?

4. What did you ______________?

5. What's your favourite ______________?

6. How would you ______________?

7. Who would you most like to _____________?

So I've been turning over plot ideas all day, changing and working on things, and when Molly came online tonight I pounced on her and rattled off all the stories I've written and cast aside in my head. (On paper I have very, very little to show for all this work!) I was up to my sixth despairing plot when this happened. The subject was CLICHEFIC (and in particular, pretend marriage!fic) - and we all know how much I like that. ♥

Me: What if Tsunade called Naruto to her office and said, "Naruto, you're not my ideal candidate for this position. You're not even in the top ten. It could only be through a series of unfortunate accidents that I would ever ask you to do this for me, and in fact there have been a number of unfortunate situations that have conspired against me, making other men otherwise busy or incapacitated, because truly I would prefer Kakashi, Yamato, Shikamaru, Kiba, Sai, Neji, Genma, [list all male shinobi] above you."
Molly: ;___; Poor Naruto
Molly: BUT SO TRUE IN SO MANY CASES
Me: "BUT, for good or for ill, they're all busy, so...you'll have to do."
Me: AND THEN SHE TELLS HIM THE PRETEND TO BE MARRIED THING
Molly: YES
Molly: PLEASE DO
Me: AHAHAHAHA
Molly: It could be a love/comedy!
Molly: Where Naruto makes an ass of himself and screws up a bunch of times!
Me: AHAHAHA
Molly: Naruto is so cute!
Molly: DO IT
Me: You'd say that to anything by now!
Me: I could say, "Hey, what if Naruto had sex WITH A GOAT?"
Molly: Well yes, but I really like that idea!
Me: And you'd be all WRITE IT! WRITE ANYTHING!
Molly: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Molly: True

While I admire her honesty, I just don't know what to write! Does anyone have any spare plotlines they could throw a desperate fanficcer with the urge to write but nothing to do it with? My other plot involved kidnapping on the high seas, but the fact that they're MOTHERFUCKING NINJA Y'ALL makes it kind of difficult for anything to overpower them. :/

I don't know about anyone else, but I periodically google myself and try to live in those brief spurts of internet popularity. I think this clinging to perceived intaweb awesomeness stems from not having achieved anything in real life, but hey, at least I'm admitting it. :D Anyway, I'd received a couple of reviews for Tempered Shift in the last fortnight, and since it's been a dead horse since August 2006, I wondered if it had been pimped somewhere, so I did the old self-google again.

Well, I found stuff. And ouch. From the Kakashi/Sakura FC @ narutofan:

Aliora...I wont read any of her fics now. I was really loving Tempered Shift, and she abandoned it, and at a really big cliffhanger too. I hate when authors do that.

and:

ahaha when I realized it was abandoned I stopped reading at the moment xd
don't like that either.... you're really into a fic and suddenly you won't have an ending

and my favourite:

ahh im not a huge aliora fan myself
I remembered reading tempered shift but i lost interest about the same time she did

what the hell if your going to abandon a fic then take it the fuck down
thats a review whore for you.

Tragically, it's all true. I also hate authors leaving fics unfinished, and I am a review whore, I don't think I've ever denied that. But it's the fact that someone doesn't want to take a chance on anything new that I've written that hurts the most, because they think that I'm going to give up in the middle, and to be honest, I probably will. My new year's resolution for LAST YEAR was to finish all my unfinished fics, and I didn't manage to write a single paragraph for ANY of them, let alone the whole lot of them.

SO, I'm removing a couple of stories (Caught Up and Trial and Error, for those who are interested) from my ff.net page and archiving them at the fic journal, and then I'm going to post any extra content I have for any and all of my stories. Then I'm going to delete the untouched snippets in my fic folder because it hasn't been touched since mid-last year, and THEN I'm going to start again. A new beginning! A fresh start! With nothing hanging over me! And I won't post anything until the full fic is done. PINKY SWEAR.

Also, for those of you who were interested in my NaNo fic, I'm going to post the full incomplete (LOL STORY OF MY LIFE) chapters at the fic journal too. So, just a warning, over the next few days, if you've got aliora friended, you'll probably notice some spam. Sorry. ;_;

Has anyone seen the first ep of Ashes to Ashes? I heard about it when I devoured Life on Mars last year and thought the premise sounded a bit stupid, so didn't really bother worrying about it, but then I saw that it had aired and since there's nothing else on telly I decided to check it out. And while it's nowhere near the calibre of LoM yet, I was suitably entertained by the premiere.

( I'm not nervous, I'm cautious! )

Despite the flaws, I honestly laughed out loud in a few places, and I was interested enough the entire time, so I'll definitely keep watching. I just hope the next ep has more Gene, less annoying!Alex, and a bit more mystery.

*brushes off icon*

So I organised my class timetable for this semester (consisting of my two FINAL SUBJECTS FOR THIS DEGREE OMG OMG OMG) and this is what it looks like:




Say it with me now guys, SWEEEEEEEEEEEET. I work every Friday from 4pm and now that I've finished all the classes at Carseldine, it's no trouble to end class at noon and GO HOME AND HAVE A SHOWER and then go to work! This could be an awesome semester for me, which is good, since I need to bring my pitiful GPA up if I want to get into my Dip Ed course in the mid-year intake. Wish me luck!

I've been in book-reading mode for the last couple of days (which is why any replies to comments have been a tad delayed, sorry about that!) and today I read Sunshine by Robin McKinley. It had been recommended to me in a number of places as a book that was 'better' than the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer, so I gave it a go.

I find that anyone who has read Twilight or the successive novels are generally separated into two camps - there are the ones who LOVELOVELOVE it, swear that it's the best thing since anything, that it's a masterpiece of vampire literature, that Edward and Bella are amazing characters etc etc. Then there are the ones that slam it, claim that Bella is a blatant Mary Sue/self-insert, that the plot is impossibly thin, the character development is nil and it's overall a piece of purple-prosed tripe that was a challenge to get through.

Honestly, I can see the points from both stances, and I guess I'm somewhere in the middle. I'm a big fan of vampire books and I found the series to have a solid, if basic, mythology, and it moved at a good enough pace. Bella is likeable enough and Edward is attractive in many ways, and a lot of the supporting characters are quite interesting as well. However the writing is over-the-top in a lot of places and Jacob in particular was handled very badly - I don't care for the way he was treated, but I don't care for him at all.

So I tried Sunshine, to see what all the fuss was about, and I think it's pretty much impossible to compare the two. For one, Sunshine has a completely different target audience, and the writing style and content have nothing in common. McKinley impressed me with Beauty some time ago and I really enjoy her whimsical, dreamy prose, although I do admit to sometimes being thrown out of the story because I'm not quite sure what she's getting at with a particular metaphor. I don't think you can fault the mechanics of Sunshine, and it was very good, but it left me with a completely different feeling to the Twilight series.

(And for the record, I haven't seen the Bella actress in anything, but I think that Robert Pattinson is PERFECT for Edward. One of the downfalls of Meyer's writing is that everything is over described, and I read stuff about Edward's eyes and hair so often that it made it strangely difficult to actually envision what he'd look like as a person, and as soon as I read the casting announcement it was like a lightbulb going off above my head. I'm tentatively looking forward to the movie - I wonder how it'll go.)

Anyway, just thought I'd throw my two cents out there. I might read the Twilight series again - I've only read books 2 and 3 once each, so I might have missed parts. And does anyone know any good vampire books? I'm somewhat in the mood but I'm not sure if there's anything worth trying. Please, no Anita Blake - I read up to book 10, but Laurell has completely lost me as a reader. Ditto Anne Rice. :(

Remember my embittered tirade about "wah too much work" and "if only I had some time to myself" and "emo emo emo"? Well, I've had the last couple of days off work and I am FUCKING BORED.

FOR SRS. I had no idea what to do with myself until I found finnigan_geist's manga pimp post, and for lack of something better to do I took her advice and re-read Koukou Debut (I'd downloaded it some time ago but had only read the first three volumes). HOLY CRAP HOW GOOD IS IT? I haven't read a new shoujo manga in a while and it's so beautiful - the art, the characters, the relationships. Haruna is a breath of fresh air and Yoh is amazing (his way of dealing with the accidental kiss thing in volume 8 had me in stitches) and I love their interaction. Not to mention the lack of/careful handling of shoujo mainstays. A+++++++++++++++++++++++!

I also read the oneshot You're My Girlfriend and then decided to try the longer series by the same author, Special A. (Manga people will probably be snorting at my late addition to the bandwagon, but I see these series and then never read them until someone tells me how good they are! :<) I liked both - SA is annoying me due to Hikari's absolute denseness, and there's a whole FIVE VOLUMES of what I assume to be the same thing after what's scanlated. I don't mind heroines who aren't the brightest crayons in the box, but WTFFFFFFFFFF.

Probably the biggest expenditure of reading-energy was FINALLY getting around to reading D.Gray-Man. I have to be in the right frame of mind to actually attempt a long shounen series, and I'd tried a volume of it a while back but it hadn't grabbed me at the time. I tried again and perservered and while I can't say it's my NUMBA ONE I did enjoy it more than I expected and am looking forward to more. I watched a bit of the anime but it feels vaguely KHR-anime-ish which means that...well...it's not as good. ._.

In an awesome segue, anime-wise (I'm in more of a manga mood, but I ran out) I finally watched all of Zombie Loan, which I'd collected as it was released but never watched past episode two. (Can YOU see the pattern?) It was surprisingly entertaining - I didn't love any of the characters but I didn't hate them either, and Michiru was actually quite a plucky little heroine - she always tried to do something and I admire that in a female character.

BUT now that I've finished them, I NEED YOUR HELP GUYZ. I'm desperate for more things to read and in particular I'm after some good shoujo manga. Funny, romantic, I don't care - I'm easily amused. What I would prefer is something that has a few volumes out at least, as the main reason I fail with shounen stuff is because I can't be stuffed keeping up with chapter releases. If there's already a few chapters to go on, I'll be more likely to get sucked in. I have read a lot of manga, but suggest something anyway, and even if I have read it you might be able to tell me something similar that I might enjoy.

MOOOOOOOOAR MANGA~!

At some point during the last few months I seem to have acquired a form of ADD, whereby I can only concentrate on a particular series for a few episodes at a time. Yesterday, for example, I watched 3 episodes of Sailor Moon, 5 of Utena, 5 of Fruits Basket and 8 of Ghost Hunt. Rewatching GH proved to be the most rewarding, and I watched almost all the rest today - I have 3 left, and as soon as I finish this post I'll be going back to it and finishing up. I took a break to cook dinner (for the first time in what feels like weeks; I rely far too much on instant food, mixes and frozen meals) and decided that I very much want to write a GH fic.

I don't think I've written anything since NaNo/Yuletide - oh, I've thought about writing stuff, and have even sat down to plan the first six chapters of a random La Corda story, but I haven't actually started, completed or written anything since my slapdash effort for Yuletide. This annoys me for various reasons and I want to get back into the swing of writing something, anything, but all my usual haunts are boring me at the moment and I want to do something different for once. I've written for GH before, just a oneshot, but the story I have vague hopes for would be a multi-part of hopefully no more than 8 chapters, and since no one else will write this pairing for me, I'm considering making it Bou-san/Mai.

I suck at overt relationship writing, so it would be hinted at with some possible more-than-platonic moments, but nothing too suss if you're disturbed by that. Unfortunately, to even get this off the ground, I'm in dire need of someone familiar with the series who has the time/inclination to beta my work for me and point out canon inconsistencies as well as any grammar/spelling errors I might make. And, er, if anyone has a plot, I'd kind of like that, too. *shifty eyes* I know a few people on my flist are fans of the series but I also know that they're rather busy, so I thought I'd make this a general request rather than stalking them to their ljs and asking them outright. But yes, if you know the series (I doubt there'd be any major spoilers from the novels in the eventual fic, but knowledge of anime and English-released manga would be necessary) and are interested in checking over my work...I would love you FOREVER.

Even if you don't have time for the fic, I would appreciate answers to or speculation regarding any of the following questions:

#1. Do we ever find out what the name of Bou-san's band is?
#2. Do we know the names of any of his band members?
#3. Can Bou-san drive/does he have a car?
#4. If Yasuhara has been accepted into a university, does this mean he's graduated high school? And if so, what year/point of the curriculum does that put Mai at?
#5. Following on somewhat, have we ever learned what Mai's future aspirations are, career-wise? Say someone just met her and asked what year she's in at school, the conversation would naturally turn to what she wants to do when she finishes school, and I'm not sure what to put for her there.
#6. How far is the SPR office from Mai's school, and from her home? Whereabouts exactly does she live, in an apartment-ish kind of place?

...um, I think I had more, but I can't remember what they were. If something springs to mind, I'll add to the list. Any input is appreciated! ♥

Further to my post about watching Sailor Moon, I finished season one this morning and thought I'd share some more thoughts about dub vs sub and how different scenes were handled and how they affected me more/less.

BUT FIRST! A theory as to why Mamoru keeps wearing what he likes to wear - ENCOURAGEMENT. False or otherwise, this has to be the biggest lie EVER TOLD.


Usagi twists the truth to make him feel better, and the rest of the world suffers from future fashion crimes

Some randomness on the finale:

( Apparently 'sacrifice' actually means something in Japanese )

I think I'm going to do Mamoru's fashion faux pas season by season, because there are just too many to list. I've ignored his usual button-up shirt/slacks combo and his Tuxedo Kamen outfit, so these are just random varients that burnt my retinas. Images under the cut!


That's a very long...finger...you have there, Mamoru~

( Mamoru's top five fashion disasters in season one )

Honestly, I think Kunzite hit the nail on the head when he said this:


TRUFAX.

When you wish upon a star...

Oh yeah, you guessed it, I'm reliving my childhood right about now. As nothing in the latest season of anime has really grabbed me, I was despairing of something to watch when I recalled a friend of mine had the original, subbed episodes of Sailor Moon. I managed to wrangle them off her, and then earlier this week I actually started watching them.

HOLY CRAP! Having only ever seen the dubbed episodes on morning cartoon shows (and later, my reasonably HQ bootlegs purchased off ebay for $20 a season!), it's been such a shock for me to see all these episodes as they were originally aired. I'm annoyed by some of the little tweaks that were made and outraged at some of the bigger plot points they switched around (Y HALO THAR JEDITE) but for the most part I'm enjoying this trip down memory lane, even if everyone has weird names. It took a few eps for me to get used to "Usagi" and I'm still calling Makoto "Lita". I'M SORRY YOU GUYS, I GREW UP ON THE DUB D:

I'm in the process of collating for prosperity a folder of screenshots featuring Mamoru's hideous sense of fashion - you thought Mohinder was bad, I can't believe some of the stuff Mamoru wears. I know it was the early nineties, BUT THERE IS NO EXCUSE. (For those who are interested, this is the current winner!)

No doubt this is all old news to a lot of you, but while I did grow up with the series and it's actually the reason I watch anime today, I never finished watching what was released of the show, and I haven't read the manga, either. I plan on doing that over the next month or so, and I was hoping that any of you who were around/active in the fandom could point me in the direction of fics etc to further my awesome SM experience.

Seriously, I know this one has done the rounds but I've never done it and I saw it today via mitsukishiroi and I...just needed to do it, okay?! I'm kind of enjoying being fandom-y of late, and stuff like this really drives home just how invested I get in things.

But, without further ado, I give you der meme~~~~~~~

Comment with the name of a series and I'll reply with:

1. The first character I fell in love with:
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now:
3. The character everyone else loves that I don't:
4. The character I love that everyone else hates:
5. The character I would shag anytime:
6. The character I'd want to be like:
7. The character I'd slap:
8. Favorite character:

9. Who are your five favorite characters?
10. Who are your five least favorite characters?
11. Which character are you most like?
12. What is your deep, dark secret regarding this?

13. A pairing that I love:
14. A pairing that I despise:
15. What are your five favorite things about your fandom?
16. What are your five least favorite things about your fandom?

HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT.

I was talking with the awesome finnigan_geist about OTPs and the nature of pairings (okay, pretty much we were just fangirling over Tamaki, but there was some srs business at the heart of the discussion ♥) and it occurred to me, not for the first time, that I have some seriously cracked favourite pairings that get absolutely no love. This led on to me thinking about fics for these pairings that I would love to read, but couldn't be arsed writing, and that in turn led to this list of stories that I'm filing under DO WANT.

IF ANYONE WRITES THESE FOR ME, I WILL LOVE YOU LONG TIME, POSSIBLY FOREVER.

#1. Fruits Basket, Momiji/Tohru. YES I WENT THERE. It's hard to dance around spoilers (and presumably everyone's read it by now) but Momiji at the end = HOT. HOT. And yeah, okay, Kyo/Tohru is my OTP for the series, but I've always enjoyed the easy camaraderie Tohru and Momiji have and Momiji's self-sacrificing nature really enders him to me. Tragically, it appears no one writes the pairing and that's a crying shame because it could be so beautiful. ;__________; (Other FB loves include Shigure/Tohru and Hatori/Tohru. I HAVE NO REGRETS!)

#2. Gintama, Gintoki/Kagura. Oh yes. Yes. Everyone already knows my penchant for older women/younger men (and if you didn't know before, NOW YOU DO) but this doesn't fit under that since apparently Kagura is fourteen "or thereabouts", says Sorachi, and that's a bit weird, even for me. This is instead another pairing where there's a level of comfort involved and a sense of each party being able to be themselves, which is a good thing since neither Gintoki nor Kagura would change for ANYONE, kthx. In fact, there's a complete lack of Gintama gen or het fic anyway, so pretty much anything would be awesome.

#3. Gakuen Alice, Tsubasa/Mikan. Maybe two of you even know the series, so this is a bit of a lost cause, but as much as Natsume/Mikan is my OTP to end (almost) all OTPs, there's something deliciously wonderful about Tsubasa and Mikan, even if it was just one-sided on Tsubasa's part. I love the protective role he plays in the relationship and how he was one of her first true friends at the academy, and how she in turn trust him implicitly and cares about him a great deal.

#4. Ghost Hunt, Bou-san/Mai. You know that chapter where they have to pretend to be a couple to fool the ghost in the park? I recall Mai saying something about how they're closer to/look like brother and sister, and my scan/manga volume translated something he said as "I want to be a bad brother!" WHY YES, BOU-SAN, YOU CAN BE AS BAD A BROTHER AS YOU WANT. Yeah, okay, Naru/Mai is the best thing since sliced bread and I love Naru because he's an emotional cripple as most of my manga men loves are, but Bou-san is just so appealing and wonderful and protective (again) and handsome and I want them to be together in fic! This was actually one of my yuletide requests but my author went with a Nodame story instead, and while I am in no way complaining, this desire remains unfulfilled! (And yes, I would also love Lin/Mai with the passion of a thousand fiery suns.)

#5. Bleach, Urahara/Orihime. YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT. This is actually a recent addition to the "list of pairings everyone will shun me for liking" and came about from one scene in the anime where Orihime is resting from...something...at Urahara's place, and he checks in on her, standing outside in the hall so that a sliver of light falls across his face and puts the rest of him into shadow. It was such an interesting image that it immediately set the crack-pairing siren going off in my head and now I'm sad and bitter because it appears I am alone in the universe once more and no one else likes the idea. (Other Bleach crack involves Chad/Karin and Ulquiorra/Orihime. SHE TRULY IS A BICYCLE.)

I have many more outrageous/unpopular pairing ideas, but I'd love to hear what other cracktastical relationships have taken place in other peoples' heads. I WILL NOT JUDGE YOU!

Okay, maybe I will, but at least I took the first step! D:

Stolen from whiteadelphi and GOODNESS GRACIOUS IT'S PRETTY MUCH SPOT ON.

What Rebekah Means

You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are full of energy. You are spirited and boisterous. You are bold and daring. You are willing to do some pretty outrageous things. Your high energy sometimes gets you in trouble. You can have a pretty bad temper at times. You are a seeker of knowledge, and you have learned many things in your life. You are also a keeper of knowledge - meaning you don't spill secrets or spread gossip. People sometimes think you're snobby or aloof, but you're just too deep in thought to pay attention to them. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out. Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia. Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

*scared*

ALSO HURRY UP AVATAR 313 I NEED YOU NAO

I shouldn't even be updating because it's after midnight and I have to work tomorrow and I'm such an old woman now that I have to be in bed early otherwise I'm grumpy all day, but for once I say SCREW THE CUSTOMERS I HAVE ANIME, and I'm finally (almost) finished La Corda d'Oro.

Back when it was airing I was pretty invested in it, going so far as to *ahem* the raws and take wild stabs at what everyone was saying. (I'd like to say now that my interpretation of Yunoki's character was pretty much spot on; I assumed he was asking Hino to become his woman in episode 19, and the subs are actually not too far off, ILU SHOUJO!) I was taking Jap classes at the time, so it helped with that, but now that I haven't touched a textbook in months it's all I can do to get the suffixes right. >_<

ANYWAY, back to the show and my feelings at the moment. If Vampire Knight re-opened the gateway to my love for shoujo, then Corda is totally mowing a path through the grass that grew over that same love in my absence from the genre. YES MY METAPHORS ARE A BIT AMBITIOUS, BUT YOU KNOW. I'm a bit sad because it'll be ending soon (I only have six eps left!) but I have been buying the manga volumes and I think I have 5, so I'll read them and maybe there'll be fic?! I know I have to stop talking about writing and just get off my arse and do it, but it's hard when there are so many guys to pick from. WHO DO I WRITE?

It's easy enough to decide who I won't write - just like in Harutoki, there are characters that I want to like, that I feel I should like, and yet I just don't like, for no reason at all. (I'm looking at you, Tenma. ;_;) In Corda, it's tragically Tsuchiura who gets the short end of the stick, even if he does seem inordinately concerned with how much other people are eating. I love it when they go to Tsukimori's house and Hihara is all, "Yay food!" and tucks in and Tsuchiura is all, "Hey now, aren't you eating too much?" and then when they leave Hihara mentions having dinner and Tsuchiura can't control his shock. "What, eating again?!". He even takes a shot at Hino for eating something! WTF! Let the skinny Japanese girl have something to eat, OKAY DAD? I feel a bit embittered by my lack of love for Tsuchiura because HELLO ITOU KENTAROU CAN I HAVE YOUR VOICE!BABIES? but he's just so...bland. Same for Ousaki, he can play in the park by himself, thank you very much. And I want to love Hihara because he's so earnest and he loves Hino so much, but goddamn he's exhausting! He has far too much energy and it drains me just watching him. D:

Topping the list of those I would skip into the sunset with is, unsurprisingly, Tsukimori. He was my favourite when I first started reading/watching and it's probably because he's an emotional cripple, as I am, and I feel I understand his inability to say/do romantic/caring things. For completely different reasons, I'm also drawn to Yunoki - I have a thing for manipulative characters as well. (See also: Shigure, Kaname). Shimazu is neither here nor there - he's cute, but a bit vague, and as much as I enjoy sleeping it's boring looking at someone sleeping all the time. (Although that ep where he stared at Tsuchiura and wished he was as 'big' as him was hilarious. And how he wants to play with people all the time and even zoned out when Ousaki suggested a quartet. CUUUUUUTE~!) In fact, I'd want to pair up Hino with Kanazawa first - he's awesome. Crack pairing FTW!

*sigh* I really want to play the games now, but my stupid PAL playstation wouldn't read the discs, not to mention my Jap level is so low it would take me hours to puzzle out the gist of any conversations. Does anyone know if these or similar romance games were ever released in English? DO WANT.

...so yeah, not really much point to this post, but I just wanted to talk about the awesomeness that is colour-coded bishies. Thanks again, shoujo~!