all kinda of good stuff, mostly books
Oct. 6th, 2005 10:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceruseehah hah hah. Screw you, uterus. You can just go to hell.
REALLY, IT'S NOT THE CRAMPS THAT GET ME, IT'S THE FUCKING LOWER BACK PAIN, BUT WHATEVER.
BUT. Actually, my week is going pretty well. Yesterday kinda sucked, because the power in the entire section of town where I work was out, and we all drove in on streets with no traffic lights and no cops--major routes, too, where the traffic never slows down, even early in the morning, and no one yields voluntarily. We had to turn over promo tables in the dark, using flashlights, and we ended up stacking dozens of old books at Customer Service, because we couldn't use the hand-held scanners with the computer systems down. It put us behind by a couple of hours, and the manager was exhorting us to get them put away as fast as possible. I spent much of the morning feeling that I could not do anything right for anyone, which is not a nice way to feel. My day improved dramatically when I went into the breakroom and found a copy of Megan Whalen Turner's newest book, The King of Attolia, sitting on the table (it's been six years since the last one, and I'd given up hope that there'd ever be another). I quite literally exclaimed, "Holy fucking shit, what is this?" And they said, "It's an uncorrected proof; the publishers send 'em to us. Want it?" "Oh my god, yes, hell yes, thank you," I replied, stuffing it in my bag, and cackling with glee.
I've basically been in a good mood ever since.
Also, I finally got my car registered. They charged me through the nose for it, and I'm offended in principle, but it's a relief to have made the deadline. Now I just need to get the emissions test done, and I can stop worrying about this sort of "do the paperwork or the law will come after you" crap until April. (Here in Mass, of course, we call it the "lawr.")
I didn't get any sweet free swag today, but I did buy Vol. 2 for both MeriPuri and Ultra Maniac, my favorites of the shoujo titles I've been reading lately, and snagged the only copy of Death Note Vol. 1 on the shelf, so I'm feeling up despite being tired and unpleasantly menstrual.
Other trivia:
1) I have the best idea for a counselor app ever in the history of CFUD. ...if I can ever find the time to write it.
2) My birthday is the 18th, and my paid account and icons expire shortly before that. Hint, hint. ::cough::
3) My favorite thing about Ultra Maniac is the creator's musing on how she'd originally planned the main characters to be a demon boy and a human girl, and to have them fall in love. Instead, she made them both girls. It it, no doubt, purely coincidental that their character designs are in the Sachiko-and-Yumi mold (this is shoujo het, after all and besides, Nina isn't voiced by Ueda Kana in the anime, how suggestive can it be?). But you know if Ayu and Nina were boys, people would be citing these comments in their ship manifestos as proof that it's not really subtext, and that Nina's repeated fuckups of Ayu's love life were actually attempts to save Ayu for herself. Le hee.
4) My favorite thing about MeriPuri is the utter wrongness of the very premise. Dear sweet baby jesus god in heaven, there is no scenario to bizarre for shoujo to explore, is there? As with Ayu, Airi's obsession with the perfect romance--and her willingness to do or be stupid things for the sake of getting a boyfriend--just makes me want to wag my finger gently at her. I am growing tolerant in my old age.
5) I did mention that birthday?
REALLY, IT'S NOT THE CRAMPS THAT GET ME, IT'S THE FUCKING LOWER BACK PAIN, BUT WHATEVER.
BUT. Actually, my week is going pretty well. Yesterday kinda sucked, because the power in the entire section of town where I work was out, and we all drove in on streets with no traffic lights and no cops--major routes, too, where the traffic never slows down, even early in the morning, and no one yields voluntarily. We had to turn over promo tables in the dark, using flashlights, and we ended up stacking dozens of old books at Customer Service, because we couldn't use the hand-held scanners with the computer systems down. It put us behind by a couple of hours, and the manager was exhorting us to get them put away as fast as possible. I spent much of the morning feeling that I could not do anything right for anyone, which is not a nice way to feel. My day improved dramatically when I went into the breakroom and found a copy of Megan Whalen Turner's newest book, The King of Attolia, sitting on the table (it's been six years since the last one, and I'd given up hope that there'd ever be another). I quite literally exclaimed, "Holy fucking shit, what is this?" And they said, "It's an uncorrected proof; the publishers send 'em to us. Want it?" "Oh my god, yes, hell yes, thank you," I replied, stuffing it in my bag, and cackling with glee.
I've basically been in a good mood ever since.
Also, I finally got my car registered. They charged me through the nose for it, and I'm offended in principle, but it's a relief to have made the deadline. Now I just need to get the emissions test done, and I can stop worrying about this sort of "do the paperwork or the law will come after you" crap until April. (Here in Mass, of course, we call it the "lawr.")
I didn't get any sweet free swag today, but I did buy Vol. 2 for both MeriPuri and Ultra Maniac, my favorites of the shoujo titles I've been reading lately, and snagged the only copy of Death Note Vol. 1 on the shelf, so I'm feeling up despite being tired and unpleasantly menstrual.
Other trivia:
1) I have the best idea for a counselor app ever in the history of CFUD. ...if I can ever find the time to write it.
2) My birthday is the 18th, and my paid account and icons expire shortly before that. Hint, hint. ::cough::
3) My favorite thing about Ultra Maniac is the creator's musing on how she'd originally planned the main characters to be a demon boy and a human girl, and to have them fall in love. Instead, she made them both girls. It it, no doubt, purely coincidental that their character designs are in the Sachiko-and-Yumi mold (this is shoujo het, after all and besides, Nina isn't voiced by Ueda Kana in the anime, how suggestive can it be?). But you know if Ayu and Nina were boys, people would be citing these comments in their ship manifestos as proof that it's not really subtext, and that Nina's repeated fuckups of Ayu's love life were actually attempts to save Ayu for herself. Le hee.
4) My favorite thing about MeriPuri is the utter wrongness of the very premise. Dear sweet baby jesus god in heaven, there is no scenario to bizarre for shoujo to explore, is there? As with Ayu, Airi's obsession with the perfect romance--and her willingness to do or be stupid things for the sake of getting a boyfriend--just makes me want to wag my finger gently at her. I am growing tolerant in my old age.
5) I did mention that birthday?
*uses icon*
on 2005-10-07 03:01 am (UTC)my senior thesis will survive itwhat to do with re-applying or whatever and stuff. And I am also kind of wanting to apply as a counselor, but I'd want to apply as an anime/manga woman (just for gender balance, and because I don't want my ability to channel testosterone to wear out completely) and I am realizing with a sinking feeling how few strong authoritative older animanga women I know (military women excluded, because my military-faking-skillz are not l33t and also military power can be a cop-out power).4. I should be more creeped out by the way that Aram is slowly changing due to the effects of 17-year-old-hormones washing his brain, but instead I loooove it. Merupuri is sweet beautiful sexy wrong romantic crack, and Borders did not have volume 2 on Tuesday and I HATES them and will be going to Barnes & Noble on Saturday. I need volume 4 like air, man. (And I need someone to app as Aram at CFUD so that the entire world can go "OH HELL
YESNO".)Re: *uses icon*
on 2005-10-07 05:16 am (UTC)Re: *uses icon*
on 2005-10-08 08:56 pm (UTC)...
Count D.
Do you read/watch FMA? I second Mikke; be Izumi! She is like, the perfect counselor, and a strong, non-military woman. She could teach Home Ec, and she would beat people up for skipping class, and it would be FUNNY. If I thought I had a chance of finding her voice, I would app her in a heartbeat.
And oh god, yes, be Hiro again. He was such a wonderful little asshole, and I think you gave him the best camp death yet.
4) Yeah, but someone would need to app Airi, too (camp does not have enough wimmin, I tells ya), to emphasize the siscon WRONGNESS of it all.
Re: *uses icon*
on 2005-10-08 09:17 pm (UTC)I ADORE Izumi, but like you I just don't think I have a chance of finding her voice.
I've been away from the game for a month; has anything happened to Sweater!Hiro in the interim that you've heard? Last I saw a month ago Tohru still had him as a sweater, and Yuki THOUGHT he'd been killed and eaten as a sandwich (but was probably not right).
4) ...I'd app Airi in a heartbeat if there were an Aram around to play with. OMG that would be so much fun! But she wouldn't be much fun in camp without him. I couldn't play Aram; he and Hiro are too similar yet just too different enough to make it too confusing.
Damn, I might app Airi anyway. She and Hiro are both pretty powerless, so they wouldn't have to have
massive angsty shonen battlesterribly time-consuming storylines, and the small size of Merupuri's cast/canon would keep the number of other players I have to keep track of down (as opposed to the giant sprawling web of Furuba). I have a day to think about it.I dare you to app as Aram with me if I do.Re: *uses icon*
on 2005-10-09 12:02 am (UTC)Alas. Maybe someone else will app her. It would require a great deal of energy, I think.
Re: Hiro. I don't think so. I've stopped even trying to keep track of most of CFUD, by now, but I believe it more or less wrapped up with the sandwich thing. Most of the Furuba cast is pretty quiet, unfortunately.
4) Playing a powerless character has its drawbacks, as I'm discovering, especially when he's canonically sensible enough not to throw himself into fights despite his breakability.
Not this round, but mebbe? Sparkle Rangers, assemble!
Oh god, the idea is really growing on me, though. He's just so goddamn cute.
*uses other icon*
on 2005-10-09 01:06 am (UTC)4. How so, for you? I'm curious how other players of characters don't DO much deal with it. Playing Hiro got really frustrating at times because situations would come up in which Hiro would canonically want to help but also canonically be unable to--he's much more likely to watch helplessly and then go off and beat himself up about it, which can depressing as a player. I think I would've eventually gotten him spurred into more kinds of action (and maybe more niceness to Tohru), but I just didn't have time for his protective streak to really start to come out.
I saw Shigure left, which makes me sad...but I like Hiro in that his disconnection from most of the Furuba cast in canon means that he works as a character without them. I don't think we've ever seen Hiro without Kisa for any extended period of time in the manga or anime, but I managed to play him just fine without her.
I've avoided the temptation to app my favorite shonen badasses A)to completely cut myself off from the temptation of all-too-easy godmodding, and B)to avoid getting caught up in the huge shonen angsty battles that crop up, that I've often found too serious and boring and contrary to the Zombie Crack Humor spirit of the RPG. I freaking love Inuyasha, for instance, but there's no way I could drop him into that group and NOT have him in giant battles every week. (Unless he had a Kagome around to "SIT" him every chance he got.)
Do it. Doooo eeeeeet. I just downloaded Chinese raws of volume 4/finale, and OMG they are so CUUUUUUTE and so wrong-that-it's-RIIIIIIIGHT.Big brother Jeille turns himself into a 7-year-old so that Airi will kiss him and Aram is all "Oh HELL NO".I've thought for a while that I'd like to app either as Airi or Kagome, because they both have the "nice girls with a magical badass streak" that the camp doesn't have enough of. I like Kagome better as a character--but Airi is more entertaining in the "OH MY GOD WRONG" way that befits zombie crack, and she doesn't have as much canon to remember.
Re: *uses other icon*
on 2005-10-09 02:06 am (UTC)4) For starters, he's not only powerless and a small teenage boy, he's also sickly, and can't take any punishment. As I said, canonically, he's sensible about it; if people warn him not to go play with the gorillas, he wouldn't do it. So far, it's just been driving me crazy; I haven't found a solution yet.
I wouldn't want to play a shounen retard for exactly the reasons you described, but it's frustrating to play such a passive character when I can't count on more active characters to draw him out.
Curse you, I'm thinking about it, now. Haven't a clue how I'd go about writing the app, though. I have vol. 2 sitting on my bedside table, waiting to be read.Dude. Tell me Aram beats him up, because I will laugh so hard.I loved Inu-Yasha dearly for about eleven volumes of manga, then threw my hands up in despair, because there's just too much of it.
Kagome's awesome, but she's also well-adjusted. Airi's canon is not only wronger, she also has a little streak of nutso that you could exploit.
Re: *uses other icon*
on 2005-10-09 05:16 am (UTC)4. ...he can sit with Hiro and watch?
Although it turns out that I'd have to turn in a normal anonymous app for Hiro, which terrifies me because I barely got in the first time and this time I'd have people voting against me because they liked "original Hiro". I'm also paranoid that I'd be up against another dup Hiro and he'd get voted for A)because he's better and/or B)people think he's ME.
[[re: Merupuri: *ENABLES*
That's all that was scanlated before sweet-lunacy folded and the series was licensed, alas. But here's volume 4 (the last one) in Chinese with summaries of chapter 18 here and chapter 19 here and a rambly squeeeful description of volume 4 overall here (very spoilery; doesn't go into detail but gives away most of the surprises).]]
Tell me Aram beats him up, because I will laugh so hard.
They do THIS "Airi, which of us do you want to kiss first?!" And Airi responds as any red-blooded sane woman would. YES WHAT YOU THINK IS HAPPENING IN THE LAST PANEL IS HAPPENING
"Inuyasha" was my very first anime/manga, and I will stick lovingly by it until the very end (which in typical Rumiko Takahashi style will kick ass and break my heart, oh "Maison Ikkoku" I love you so). I just wish the end were coming SOONER. Although I am freaking loving Sesshomaru in the latest storyarcs, everything else is draaaaaaagging.
Airi's a lot nicer than Hiro; playing a character that has to a brat (and a MALE brat at that) to everyone can get exhausting. And she's got some untapped ability for magic, if I ever decided to make her a
shonen retardmore badass character as I went along.Hmmm. I'm not sure if one can apply for two characters at once. I will have to check.
Re: *uses other icon*
on 2005-10-09 02:01 pm (UTC)Merupuri v03 c17
Merupuri v03 Special
*so torn now*