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Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.
- 19:41 apparently my grandpa on my dad's side passed away today #
- 20:26 concert!! dec 16th. papa roach, shinedown, and hailstorm. am soooo going. XD cast should be off by then, so bring it on! #
| Friday, November 6th, 2009 | ||
|
ranalore |
10:55p | fandoms to nominate next yuletide, a list in progress ~ Music video for Vienna Teng's "Gravity." ~ Music video for Dave Matthews' "Gravedigger." (WARNING: Video may be triggery.) ~ Music video for Lamb's "Gorecki." ~ The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (?) ~ Moulin Rouge! (forevermore, possibly) ~ Anyband again (add soccerball soldiers and chair-dancing soldier to character list) ~ Ten Inch Hero (love, seriously) ~ Bride of the Water God (I thought someone else might cover it this year, but nope) ~ CSJH forever ~ I should perhaps add Chae Yeon to Asian solo artists, if she's not in there already. I'm sure BoA is, but I'll double-check. ~ If we can do music videos, does that mean I could nominate "Purple Line," in which DBSK are incubi high class rentboys in a futuristic world? Ooh! Bae Seul Gi's "Tomboy!" Current Mood:  contemplative |
|
katfusion |
11:04p | Tweet Tweet! Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter |
|
branchandroot |
12:37p | How not to cross genres Genre crossing, when done well, can be a very effective storytelling technique, allowing the author to hit the reader with unexpected plot turns and presentation that is sufficiently unusual that it will make the reader think twice about the scene. Alas, when not done well all we get is a hot mess. Amano is currently demonstrating Not Well with Katekyou Hitman Reborn. This is especially a shame considering that her first cross went off very well. When she had written sixty issues of a gag manga, full of underwear shenanigans, and suddenly decided she wanted to write a serious, indeed dark in places, battle manga, she made the transition quite smoothly. The underwear phased out and was replaced in a plausible way, the change presented as a moment of personal development for our main character, such as we might expect in a good battle manga. The initial premise, that our hero is slated to inherit a mafia family, offered plenty of material for a darker turn. So far so good. The next two and a half arcs were a marvelous sweep of fast-paced action with personal development and growth for the whole ensemble of characters. And then we hit the bump. Possibly even the shark. Somewhere, for some reason, the decision was made to extend the Future arc with a new set of villains, and the storytelling fell apart. The pace jinked and faltered, new characters got no background or development, the fights were truncated and disappointing compared to the intense confrontations of previous arcs, and even the first half of the Future arc. Worst of all, Amano turned back to the gag genre, and, at this juncture, failed to make it work. This is most evident in our hero, Tsuna. Tsuna has always flailed a lot, to be sure, but less so as time went on; indeed, when he came to the future, the pressure of events and responsibility seemed to wash the flailing out of him and push him toward a more mature presentation even when he isn't wrapped up in Dying Will. With this latest turn, however, the flailing is suddenly back to early levels, to the extent that his weapon reflects it and allies comment on it. The plot provides us with no explanation for this. This is characteristic of the gag genre: character development is neither necessary nor, in most cases, desired. The character quirks that are used for gags must remain constant, and the nature of the genre is such that readers are usually willing to suspend any disbelief and accept them, however implausible. It's part of the genre expectations. The genre expectation of a battle manga, and especially a serious one, is that characters will develop, both technically and emotionally. Sudden backsliding of personal development needs some kind of cause or explanation. As I said at the beginning, these expectations can be crossed, if it is done well. Many battle manga use brief gag moments to break tension; bathroom humor is a favorite. Even the development of the hero can be let to fail briefly, for the sake of increasing dramatic tension. But if the audience is not to reject that tactic, it must be framed, supported, explained in some way--it must be presented as a dramatic moment, in order to be accepted as such. Tsuna's reversion is not. Hence my fear that Amano has no clue where she's going with the current sub-arc and has fallen back on her roots because she is at a complete loss. If this is due to editorial pressure, to draw out the Future arc more, I hope someone kicks that editor in the teeth soon. If it is due to Amano losing her grip on the story, paging editor!Reborn, please. In either case, the current issues are a fine example of how not to do it. |
| Thursday, November 5th, 2009 | ||
|
karadin |
10:55p | More news Some Good news, missing baby found alive and well in cedar chest, mother had claimed baby was kidnapped http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/05/flo |
|
karadin |
10:19p | LATEST NEWS on FORT HOOD SHOOTINGS SUSPECT is not dead. An Army psychiatrist opened fire with two handguns at the Fort Hood Army post on Thursday, killing 12 and wounding 31 others, Army officials said, adding the suspect was shot several times but survived. Authorities identified the suspected gunman as Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who had treated soldiers wounded in foreign wars preparing for foreign deployment at the post. Major Nidal Hasan was born and raised in the United States, at the present time, his motivation in considered personal (he was about to be deployed overseas) not political. He did however, target people that he knew. Fort Hood in Killeen Texas is the largest military facility in the world. http://www.reuters.com/article/topN |
|
karadin |
3:40p | Hyakujitsu no Bara (Maiden Rose) OVA2 Remember that wonderful anime I rec'd some months ago? Beautiful bishounen Lord of an AU Japan somewhere between WW1 and 2 with the tall Germanic soldier who serves as his right hand? OVA 2 has now been subbed by arrinfantasy! And it's better than the first half!!! http://www.aarinfantasy.com/ You can also see a link to the preview of the NEW version of Ai No Kusabi! It's a yaoi lovers paradise today! |
| ngaio | 9:17p | Day 5 Today I am lacking in topic again, but do not fear for tomorrow I am 75% likely to go to a Hip Hop Dance taster session at the gym and I'm sure that'll give me plenty of material to waffle. Incidentally I am so very much not hip hop material it's almost untrue, so it should be a bit of a surreal experience. So - it's bonfire night. Huh. Had I been home I'd have seen some fireworks as I live less than 5 minutes from the town display but I'm not hugely fussed at having 'missed' them. Aside from anything else I was walking home from the gym and texting Allegra (OK, often stopping to text as I have neither the coordination nor the spatial awareness to text and walk at the same time) with silly limericks and insulting Matt Di Angelo and stuff. She's part way up the M-something travelling back *up* from south of London having travelled *down* there today this morning. Funeral. Yeah. Tomorrow is work colleague Lucy's partner's dad's funeral. And also the day they were meant to be picking up the keys to their first shared house. So that's a day of positives and negatives for her. I'm missing Lucy, she's been off this week and will be off next (because of preparing for the move and moving, organised before her partner's loss) and I need my partner in suffering and planning back. So much can be said with a shrug and an eye roll! Also when she comes back I don't have to log onto her computer to check things any more which means I don't have to type her password which is 'I love {partner's name}' which is good. Because I don't. I think that by and large he's a bit of an arse.) Back to the fireworks. One of our cats doesn't like them. The other is completely unflustered by them and continues to sleep on Henry like a puppy or a baby, lying on his back with his paws in the air and a blissful expression on his face. This is the same cat I was muttering about on Twitter a few weeks ago who regularly falls out of my (upstairs) bedroom window. Silly thing. The best firework display I ever saw was when I lived in Northampton where every August they had/have a balloon festival. You could go there 6am and 6pm and watch the balloons ascend (6am was amazing, because otherwise it was very quiet and still and just the roar of the {things that make hot air balloons go up that I can't think of the name of} and these huge multicoloured balloons rising into the sky. Anyway! - if you were there for the 6pm take off on the Saturday night if you stayed until 10pm (there were stalls and food and stuff of course) then there was also a fireworks display. So Henry and I found a quiet-ish spot and the summer evening and just lay on our backs on the grass and watched fireworks go off in the night sky. Beautiful. Current Mood: ditzy |
|
karadin |
2:27p | Not your Mother's Sesame Street thanks to kayay for this link! You can watch old episodes of Sesame Street on DVD, but they come with this warning. "These early 'Sesame Street' episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today's preschool child." Why do these early shows need a disclaimer? Because the street looks dingy? Because Oscar was a Grouch? Because Cookie Monster eats too many cookies, or because Bert and Ernie sleep in the same bedroom? http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/T |
|
karadin |
9:19a | Taichi Saotome - Sakura Some of my friends don't know Taichi, which means I'm not blogging about him enough! But this is I think, one of his most remarkable performances, from a few years back, in his stage shows he alternates between male and female roles, in an upcoming film he will take on a male role, and he's very happy! He grew up in Kyogen theater, and the decision to make him onnagata was his father's. |
| Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 | ||
|
katfusion |
11:12p | Tweet Tweet! Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter |
|
ranalore |
5:05p | did i mention productive? Accomplished: ~ Draft of second Nuna Exchange story, for which I had to Frankenstein the first one, so I guess I don't have a spare pinch hit story anymore. ~ Started drafting Master Fic List post shootmenow. ~ Yuletide Sign-ups Are Open! I did my preliminary sign-up. Preliminary because I need the visual of the sign-up confirmation email to see some of the combinations of characters for which I inadvertently signed up. I'm one of those writers who tries very hard to accommodate the optional details, so it's best for me to fill out my sign-up in such a way as to avoid potential sexual pairings that would make me take up heavy drinking. Speaking of Yuletide, two things: Anyband got accidentally categorized as "RPF" in the final list of available fandoms. As one of two people who nominated it, my interest is actually in the fictional world and characters presented in the cf itself, and I've clarified that in my Dear Yuletide letter. So if you're considering requesting or offering this fandom, know that it's not intended to be RPF. There's a limit of requesting and offering up to four characters maximum in any given fandom, and the way to get around that in terms of offering still does not allow one to offer, say, a fivesome, so, uh, if you plan to request Chaotic Koreans, it might be good to just pick your favorite and then in details specify if you want the others involved and also involved, *ahem.* But you didn't hear that from me, because I would never give away a fandom I might perhaps have signed up to write, nooo. Also, did I mention ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} musesfool is conducting a poll to find out if there's enough interest to run a Dark Angel fic exchange? Because she is. We'd like to get at least ten people playing, but no more than fifty, so if you'd like to participate, fill out the poll! Current Mood:  bouncy |
|
ranalore |
2:32p | Dear Yule Goat letter Putting this here now that I've confirmed the fandoms I want made the final cut, so I can point to it in my sign-up form. Dear Yule Goat*, First of all, I like you already for the fandom or fandoms we share, and I want to thank you so much for signing up to write one of my fandoms. You rock just for that! If you have been hanging out around the ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} yuletide comm, you might have noticed me talking up Anyband and Moulin Rouge. Do not freak out if neither of those are the fandom on which we were matched. Anyband is my gimme fandom this year, so I wanted to give people access to it and explain some of what I loved about it. The eligibility of Moulin Rouge was in dispute, so I was overjoyed when it was deemed eligible. But CSJH is my carryover request from last year, so I would be really delighted to get fic in that one, and Ten Inch Hero fast established its place as a favorite movie, so fic for that would also be awesome like you wouldn't believe.Like last year, my requests this year seem to have fallen into two categories: fandoms with a focus on female relationships, and fandoms with speculative elements. Well, and the theme that music will save your life, even Ten Inch Hero has a carefully chosen soundtrack. I'd broaden it to art of any kind saving your life, and call it good. Despite the heavy focus on music, though, please do not write songfic of any kind. The characters quoting a few lyrics at each other is okay, but please don't have them quote entire songs to each other, and please don't include song lyrics in the narrative as a substitute for relationship exploration or character insight. ( Details for my requests, including Anyband, CSJH, Ten Inch Hero, and Moulin Rouge ) Most importantly, write what gets you excited. Your enthusiasm will shine through in the story, and that will make it a better gift for me. Leaving out tamales and cocoa with chile, Rana *I'm Scandinavian hyphenate, so the Yule Goat is, in fact, in my tradition and ancestral cultures to use, as tamales and Mesoamerican cocoa are in my environmental culture. Current Mood:  excited |
|
karadin |
4:06p | For my friends who love dance, and traditional japanese arts, or just admire beauty Scene of Heaven - newer performance from one of Japan's premiere onnagata Saotome Taichi - a young male in kabuki or kyogen theater who takes on a woman's role. |
| ngaio | 8:38p | Day 4 Sorry, this one's topic is probably just going to be 'me' and 'random' because I'm a little knackered and unable to think of an actual subject to pontificate about. Today's work environment included me emailing Roses (who I am renaming Allegra, just so you know) with the simple sentence: 'do you think she'd notice if my head exploded?'. Normally I try not to be too bitchy about work and colleagues (except Management, who deserve it) because goodness only knows I am irritating to them too I'm sure. But one colleague in particular tries my patience something chronic. What's very very irritating is that she *can* be lovely, understanding and pleasant. Unfortunately what she normally is is selfish, childish and entitled. With a side order of martyred. So that's that bitchiness. Good things today - Talking to Allegra and Dylan, remembering to be a friend and ask how they were and not just expect them to tell me. Also - Curry. And triple chocolate chunk butter shortbread. And coming home from the gym to sausages (97% meat) and chips. I do have to say that the SlimFast drink which was my breakfast was not a highlight of the day, but the fact that I had that rather than something else is good. I exercised. Went to my first step class in around 6 months, and my first one at the new gym I joined. (They have a steam room so hot your nails sweat! And it has eucalyptus oil in the steam which, though I can't smell it, means I can really really breathe after being in there. Aside from the sharp lack of breath caused by the post-steam room cold shower. Urgh!) I didn't fall off the step and could do everything and keep up. Next time I need to exercise harder (I'm a great one for conserving energy, even in exercise classes) and maybe take the step up one level/block/height. But now I can't move much, even without factoring in the large ginger cat who's been asleep on my right arm for the entirety of this entry. Current Mood: calm |
|
karadin |
2:21p | New Word and Image  |
|
ranalore |
7:49a | heads-up for the da peeps musesfool has posted a poll to gauge interest in a small Dark Angel fic exchange (capping participation at fifty people, but we're both betting the numbers will be much, much smaller than that). Timing and format of the challenge are answered in the poll post, so check it out if you were sad to see DA is ineligible for yuletide, and would be down with adding to the pool of stories via an exchange.We're not advertising in the comms, because we don't want this to get huge, but feel free to let individuals know that you think might have an interest in participating. Current Mood:  hopeful |
| Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 | ||
|
ranalore |
5:51p | it's that time of year when i get productive, for certain values of the word Yesterday, I wrote a draft of my nuna_fanworks fic exchange story, but I decided I wasn't quite satisfied with how it met my prompt(s), so I started over. I guess that means I have an extra in case someone needs a pinch hit that matches the pairing (OT5 is axiomatic, but that don't mean it's always explicit), provided I manage to finish the new draft. Possibly I will, though the current scene is frustrating me.After losing all the in-progress files for updating my website in the External Hard Drive Crash of Aught Nine, I have even less motivation than usual to continue the project (also, I would have to comb back through my LJ to see which stories I don't still have on the list as needing to be coded, but that aren't already on the site, and then comb through the site looking for the files I was fixing while updating, and in short, I am the bad example and object lesson of why you should not do huge updates about once a year instead of little updates every few months, and let that be a lesson to you all). I have pondered creating a Fic Master List in my DW account as a temporary fix while I pep talk myself into getting back on the wagon to update the site, but that would be even more extra work, and extra work and me are clearly unmixy things. Also, not all of my stories were ever on my LJ, to be imported to my DW, and I'd have to decide if I wanted to do backdated posts to get them in there, or just point people at the site as it stands and say, "Older stories can be found here." Thoughts? Y'all are the ones who have to use whatever system I come up with; I just write the things. Somebody (not me, and not musesfool, since she gave us Remix Redux and is sort of set for Contributing to Fandom for life) should look into creating a Dark Angel fic exchange. I'd so totally be on board for that, not least because it would give me something to trick my brain into finishing some of these WsIP. Of course, it would only work if I could specify the characters and pairings I will and won't write, because I don't write Ames White at all (okay, look, he is not even creepily fascinating when you spent most of your life going to church with hundreds of his pod buddies, got it? And I have Opinions about his popularity in the fandom and what it says about unexamined racism and misogyny, but that's a rant I'll save for when I'm feeling like blowing things up), and I do not write Logan having sex. Ever. With anyone. So yeah, if you can specify characters and pairings to offer, that should happen.Is it Yuletide yet? How about now? Now? Current Mood:  coldCurrent Music: Snow Dream (expected!Heechul balanced by the presence of CSJH and that hot guy from, I think, BlackB |
| ngaio | 9:47p | Day 3 (This post is almost entirely phoebesmum's fault, just so you know.)Sushi - (NB I am aware there seems to be some sort of sushi vs sashami terminology debate but no one has ever explained the difference to me and everything I talk about below has been sold to me as 'sushi' so that's what I'm going to say, sorry.) Hands up who likes sushi. Hands up who likes the sushi you get from Tesco or M&S or similar. Hands up people who make their own sushi (I'll be coming round for your addresses later so you can teach me/feed me!). I *love* sushi. But I like it to have raw fish which the supermarkets here don't do, it's all mackerel and tinned tuna and soft cheese (seriously, soft cheese in sushi - why?!). Which is why one of my life's ambitions is to have *proper* sushi, made by and for Japanese people. Not Westernised. (I nearly had some a few weeks ago when I was in London but I looked at the menus and realised I probably wasn't allowed to go in and ask for one of everything so didn't. I had Chinese instead because that was an all you can eat buffet and therefore I *could* have one of everything!) Of course this means that in theory at some point I'm going to have to experience wasabi. Which I normally avoid like the plague. Largely because spicy/hot things have a tendency to burn off my taste buds, leaving me unable to taste anything for some time. Since sushi tends to be fairly subtle in taste wasabi kinda defeats the point for me. I'm also weird (amongst my friends, who to give them their dues are vegetarian, but who have a theoretical understanding of the appeal of fish-based sushi) in that I like the sushi that has the fish eggs on/in it. Little things which go *pop* in my mouth and give me a flood of taste? Sign me up! ... well that was random wasn't it?! Current Mood: hungry |
|
karadin |
8:10a | KITTO DAIJOBOU! My Fave Arashi Song - with RAINBOWS!!! |
|
karadin |
8:07a | HAPPY 10th ANNIVERSARY ARASHI!  What can I say? Whenever I feel low, I can put on a single, a video, one of your shows and I feel so much better! It's the drug that keeps on giving with no side effects (except maybe excessive sparkles) I Love you AIBA, SHO, OHNO, NINO and MatsuJUN! All the best today and everyday! |
| Monday, November 2nd, 2009 | ||
|
ranalore |
4:45p | a brief note about the yule goat If you are signed up for yuletide and are following the community, you probably already know both about the idea to address detail-expanding request letters to the Yule Goat, and the rather rudely-worded anonymous objections to same. Anonymous did not bother to identify hirself as either Scandinavian or Scandinavian hyphenate, and declared the concept of addressing one's letter to the Yule Goat as universally offensive.I am here to tell you, that assertion is factually incorrect. As a Scandinavian hyphenate, the Yule Goat is part of my cultural heritage (a related heritage to the one from which we get Yuletide, in fact), and I am personally rather tickled at the passing of the concept into the wider Yuletide community's consciousness. Everyone, of course, must determine for themselves if they are comfortable using the term, and I cannot speak for every Scandinavian hyphenate (or any Scandinavian) any more than can anonymous. For myself, I will be using Yule Goat, because now I can be fairly certain my author will know what the term means, and, very importantly, I can't appropriate what's mine. Really, I'm not quite sure how to feel about anonymous' implicit assumption that no actual Scandinavians or Scandinavian hyphenates might be taking part in Yuletide, therefore the term Yule Goat is absolutely inappropriate for any Yuletider to use, but uh, they'd be wrong. Current Mood:  calm |
|
ravurian |
8:21p | Argh. Chaps: remind me why it would be a terrible idea to invest in a pair of red tartan trousers? I mean, I know it would be, and yet, and yet... Better or worse than the green ones? Or the blue ones? Perhaps I should just buy a pair of tweed ones to go with the tweed converse I bought today? Somebody stop me! I need a shopping icon. And a schadenfreude one. And a fashion one. In the meantime, I will use this one, which I like to consider my homage to my youth, my rakish charm, and to jonem. Thank you kindly. |
| ngaio | 7:33p | Day 2 When I went to senior school my school building was amazing. It was only my building for the first three years of senior school, there was another building a couple of streets away which was the upper school building. As it was my school merged with another and though I did have three years in the Poulton Street building the year below me moved for their third year to a nasty 1970s breeze block monstrosity about ten minutes away. But *my* building was the Poulton Road site. There was a very logical reason that it was the building left behind in the move as it were, it had been built as a temporary building ... in 1921. But it was lovely building, full of heart and character. It was red brick to around thigh height and then horizontal wooden slats which started out goodness only knows what colour but had weathered through the last 80-odd years to almost black. The roof tiles were terracotta (coloured anyway) and the windows were white. ( This is the only photo I can find online right now ) Obviously by the time that photo was taken the old girl was coming apart at the seams but she always did have her foibles. During high winds (and my home town is on a peninsula, trust me, you got high winds!) the internal walls which were wooden slats moved backwards and forwards, very disconcerting if you were leaning against one as my dad found out one parents' evening. Also if the wind and rain were in the 'right' direction certain desks got 'snowed' on with wet sand. The building had an internal courtyard which I never went in, the regular hoi poloi were not allowed. But one of the Deputy Heads kept bees in it, and sometimes I would look up from my maths work to see him and some of his students (from the 'mental extension', a metal addition to the back of the building which housed the kids with learning difficulties and which nearly resulted in me not having the top of my right thumb) working at the hives. Goodness only knows it wouldn't be allowed now. But because of this lack of attention the courtyard was largely overgrown and full of flowers and wildlife which suited the building well. Because of the slope of the ground the school had levels, despite being all on one floor. You would go along a corridor and up six steps to be able to turn right and then along and up again. Logically there must also have been some down as I'm sure I'd have noticed going to school in an Escher drawing, but I only remember going up! It led to the occasional odd situation where, the French and woodworking classrooms being, slightly inexplicably, linked by a door, you could open the door and see that the French classroom was about 3 feet above the woodworking room. I can't for the life of me remember whether you just jumped down/up (as no one ever *used* the door, we all used the corridor) or whether there was a short flight of steps. It was the type of school where had I been informed that there was a doorway to Narnia hidden around the place I would not have been at all surprised. Current Mood: nostalgic |
| Sunday, November 1st, 2009 | ||
|
karadin |
3:52p | Dead Man's Party - Oingo Boingo Never get by a Halloween without this song. ;D |
|
karadin |
12:59p | |
