MILES to GO || before I sleep

Ah, another Ed Hardy sale! The discounted prices at ideeli are actually quite reasonable, but it's for two things I'd never use/wear: purses and a scarf!

Of course, upon graduating I assume I'm going to have to alter my wardrobe a bit to fit in with the so-called "real world," and maybe then I'll get into things like accessorizing with scarves, but until then I'll just stare at the beautiful art that is the Ed Hardy line and imagine a day when something I'll actually use/wear will come out (without making me look like a total conformist!?).

(That said, I saw a clip of Zac Efron's "17 Again" with him dressed ENTIRELY in Ed Hardy, and telling his friend-playing-father that "Kevin Federline wore this!" as if that was supposed to make it "cool" to wear in a high school. But yeah, it's K-Fed... So now it makes me wince to think of someone showing off "too much" Ed Hardy.)

Keyword Manager for iPhoto (by Bullstorm) has finally been updated to 1.5! This means it's compatible with iPhoto '09. Huzzah! I already downloaded and installed mine; since I'd purchased a previous version, the upgrade was free (I think). Another way of getting organized: labeling all my pictures with metadata tags!

I added a few old entries (some of them Friends Locked, because let's be honest here: I was stupid not having protections on my old blog back in the day) from my old Blue Reflections blog, back when it was powered by Greymatter and on the rosedreams.org domain. I'm working my way through 2002, and it's sadly amusing, the kind of stuff I wrote. I've got a lot more to go before I'm all "caught up," though.

Finally signed up at Ping.fm (thanks to an article on helpful websites on GeekSugar). As I was going through the various websites/networks to add, I was surprised at a) how many I'm on and b) how many I'm not on. I guess there's something to be said for simplicity: I mean, what's the point of being on too many of the same site? (That sounds lame. I'm on every big name social networking site because of the fact that, the more places you are, the easier it is to find you--for better or for worse!)

Let's see, my networks are: Twitter, Facebook, AIM, GTalk, MySpace, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, LJ (duh), Delicious, Friendster, and Yahoo 360. Hey, that's actually not that many! And some of them (e.g. Facebook and LiveJournal; FriendFeed and... well, everything) are already connected, which gives me the mental image of playing cat's cradle with something very sticky.

Finally had my appointment at the Klotz Student Health Center dental clinic-- they kept having to reschedule my appointment! I got worked on by a student intern today, but everything looks/feels fine; I'm just hoping the numbness on the entire lower right-hand side of my face goes away soon.

As I was leaving the Health Center, they were showing "Armageddon" on DVD. I thought it actually looked cool, and, shockingly enough, I've never seen it. So that's to be added to my list of movies to see (both on DVD and in theatres). I also want to see "17 Again" and still "Fast & Furious" as well as "Confessions of a Shopaholic" and probably "The Soloist" (even if Jamie Foxx is a touch-and-go kind of guy; sometimes I think he's a great actor, other times I think he's a bizarre, if downright rude man).

I also decided to shift gears on my as-yet-unwritten submission for sm_fanswap. I was originally going to do this dark, political piece, but I think I'm going to shift that to the back burner and work on an older idea that still fits the requirements for the swap. Of course, I can't say more.... :X

DeviantART finally has gotten its act together-- or at least part of it. I don't know if there have been any HUGE changes in policy or significant changes in management (such as firing the douches that make dA look like it was being run by a bunch of bigoted idiots), but there is a new category for doll edits, which are one of my primary forms of fanart submissions. It's nice to be recognized! I still disagree with their policy that they should be "Scraps," because they say that they're prepackaged and there's no effort involved. Uh, excuse me, the dolls are a collaborative effort! On top of that, a lot of the ones I post are heavily modified in Photoshop, and I think the hours spent count as EFFORT. That said, I have put most of the dolls into the new category, but some of them won't go in, supposedly because the only filetype allowed is GIF. WTF, dA!? Since when are PNGs a bad file type for dolls? Not every dollmaker uses GIF files, and on top of that, if we DO "tool" the dolls ourselves, we should be able to save the resulting file however we like! GRR!

Do any Mac users have a recommendation for a good time-tracking utility? Specifically, I'd like something that integrates with iCal so I can keep track of how much I should make from the hours I spend at work. If I ever did freelancing or consultation stuff (for web design or just general tech support), it'd be nice if this tool had an invoicing feature, too. I've heard of several, but I want to know if anyone on this FL actually HAS one and used it, and of course, liked it.

Ah, so much to do, so little time.

Greetings from the Oviatt Library of Cal State Northridge (where I was when I first started writing this post)! It's finally the late afternoon, and Inauguration Day is winding down at last. Of course, I was up at 7:30 a.m. for my 9:00 class, so I missed all the inauguration fun, even though Dad called me at 6:30 a.m. to bug me about watching it. He (and several other members of my family) seem to think Inauguration Day ought to be a holiday, but as for me, I've been looking forward to today as the first day of school long before I knew about who was going to be taking the Oath of Office this morning.

In any case, I've managed to catch up with play-by-plays, fashion reports, and transcripts of Obama's speech, so I don't feel as if I've missed out on much. Of course I'm excited and hopeful, but I also know I'll be able to watch it tonight if I so wish. After all, tons of stations are having Encore Presentations of every aspect of the inauguration, so....

As for classes, it was great seeing Prof. Lisagor for my Food Science Lab course again! She even hugged me! :) I was quite glad just to be remembered, but I immediately got into techie mode because some people couldn't log into the shiny cinema-screen Macs (sadly, with Windows pre-loaded on them; the Food Processor program we use for class is Windows-only. Blech!). We spent a lot of time talking about what the class is going to involve, but we moved onto our first big project: a cultural foods meal plan.

We're supposed to think of a culture other than our own and imagine that a person coming from that culture/country has come to the U.S. and has come to us in need of a dietician. Obviously, my first thought was for Japan! So I'm working with a classmate from India named Mythri (My-three), and we've both got to invent a person and come up with a meal plan for them that includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and 2-3 snacks for two days. Four of those meals have to be cultural foods (that is, Japanese) that are prepared. Everything should be "made at home," not "fast food" or whatever.

...For some reason, the first person that came to mind was Usagi Tsukino. More specifically, the Usagi that's in a very particular fic that I read recently on Aria's Ink, where she's come to the U.S. on a study abroad program.

Besides, it's not as if I don't know all her vital stats: she's 4'11", 99 lbs., 15 years old (well, we're imagining Season 1-3 Usagi here), and leads an active lifestyle-- what she lacks in P.E. she makes up for with Sailor Senshi duty and running like a mad chicken on her way to school. Inputting all that in, I've discovered just how many calories, vitamins, and minerals she ought to be taking.

Bearing all that in mind, now I've got to come up with 4 simple recipes that are Japanese in origin that Usagi might eat if she's seeing a dietician for whatever reason. I'm tempted to watch a bunch of Sailor Moon episodes to see how food appears in it, and what Usagi's eating habits are (other than just "voracious").

After that class, I went to Yoga. A surprising amount of people were wearing jeans, which made me roll my eyes. Really, the syllabus says "wear comfortable clothing," and people think "jeans?" The teacher seems like she's strict but interesting-- she reminds me of a professor I had in Journalism in my freshman and sophomore year where you either loved her or you hated her, but if you loved her, it's because despite the strictness, you learned. I'm hoping that'll be the case here, too.

Work today was pretty cool, too. I only had a short shift, but half of it I worked at the kiosk upstairs in the library, which we've started doing the first few weeks of the semester to introduce campus technology and the IT department to the people milling about the first floor.

Tomorrow I've only got one class-- my Public Relations class. Normally I'd have my long Biology lab, except the professor's postponed the first class session until next week, which is nice, because it gives me time to get adjusted to my other classes, get my textbooks and other supplies (seriously $114 for a biology NOTEBOOK!?!) and get used to the campus life again. I'm hoping I can use the rare extra time (because normally Wednesday would be my all-day session) to work on WDKY26 more. So far, it's coming along quite well... ^_^

ARGH! - Financial aid check didn't go through YET, so I couldn't get my PSP and SO2:SE as planned today, let alone check out the mall for some **free** makeup. Meh, I didn't need it (the makeup) anyway, and I don't need the PSP and the game RIGHT NOW, either. Textbooks are more the priority, anyway. Surprisingly, the bookstore actually has the cheapest rate for some of the textbooks. Some of the other textbooks, unfortunately, simply can't be found on Half.com or Amazon or whatever-- they're those special notebook lab packs. But that doesn't mean I'm out of resources yet!

Also: new icons! Yay. But I still need more for some of my other fandoms. There are also some I can't bring myself to get rid of even though I rarely use them. But hell, I've got nearly 200 userpic slots, so what does it matter!?

Ah, I miss Usenet.
What a crazy thing to say, huh? But in the search for some Sailor Moon images, for some reason, the first thing that popped in my head was NOT to do a Google Image search or go to The Oracle or whatnot, but to see if alt.binaries.sailor-moon was still around (assuming I got that name right).

Alas, the vast majority of ISPs these days have discontinued their NNTP/Usenet access service (probably because they never made much of an effort to advertise that it even existed, meaning new users didn't even KNOW about it), and that includes the ones in use (or formerly used) by my grandparents and Mom/Gary. For many alt.fan or rec. groups, access is still available for free from places like Google Groups, but it's not quite the same... plus, there's still the overwhelming problem of SPAM, and in Google Groups' web-based interface, there's diddly-squat you can do about it.

The only other alternative --for general Usenet access to binary groups AND for NNTP access in news programs (Apple Mail doesn't even support NNTP, which had me temporarily thinking I might switch back to Thunderbird... then I wised up and realized that an extra piece of software isn't ALWAYS a pain in the ass, especially with my lack of an NNTP server in the first place)-- is to buy it. Giganews seems to be the one of choice, but I don't have the dough to shell out for Usenet access when it's something that's more of a whim to me.

But I do miss those good ol' days when I could hop on Usenet and find image floods of fanart, or character-specific art, or art themed around a certain event/holiday. It'd be pretty helpful for me now, in my search for Sailor Moon Christmas images. (I know, I know, The Oracle has a whole gallery devoted to it, but it's only 58 images! I *know* there's more than that out there!)

Speaking of SM, I did sign up to be a Sekkret Stalker on Aria's Ink this year. Participation seems fairly low so far for this point in December, but there are still FOUR MORE DAYS TO SIGN UP! Why not?

Plus, guardian_kysra and I want to do a holiday challenge or something this year, so why not throw your hat in and volunteer too? We'll probably do something that covers different fandoms-- maybe a Secret Santa or Fic Exchange where all you do is specify a list of fandoms you'll write for, genres/ratings/pairings/warnings you prefer, and up to 3 "plot prompts." How does that sound?

Also, I got an invite from someone named Loki to join the_circlet and its sub-communities, silver_circle and gold_circle, along with a few related comms. It all sounds/looks fairly interesting, but I think I still need a bit more clarification on exactly what is DONE there. baine, care to comment? I'm confused!

Also, I haven't written SM fic in AGES and going back to Aria's Ink (Loki also reviewed "24" there, which is probably one of my better SM fics to date) and checking out these comms... it's all made me very nostalgic! Hey, maybe we can revive the smrff in time for the holidays!? That'd be so awesome.

I'm only up now because (as usual) my sleeping schedule's off. I went downtown tod-- er, yesterday to get a December Fast Pass and eat some delicious Tex-Mex. I got "approached" by a very enthusiastic girl from Greenpeace who kept me from getting to Chevy's that much sooner. I'm all for saving the planet, so:

DO NOT BUY KIMBERLY-CLARK PRODUCTS. These are the makers of Kleenex, Cottonelle, Scott tissue, and many other products. Why? Because they're clear-cutting (meaning cutting without care to the re-growth of future trees) thousands of ancient Canadian trees. The CEO has reportedly even said that his consumers "don't care about environmental issues." Show that pig he's wrong! Also, find out if your job/school has a contract with KC. Then get them to CANCEL it. There are more environmentally-friendly companies out there.

( Accion Y Reaccion )

So, I haven't updated in what seems like ages (that HSM post doesn't count, because I'd written that more than a week ago and just saved it, hoping for a time when I COULD post it) because The Powers That Be were conspiring against me or something, and Murphy's law was in full effect-- all that jazz. So I decided to start doing something about it.

( Keyboard Mayhem! )

( Michael Moore is hard to find )

( A little lost memory card and some movies )

( Noconnectlink )

( An HTC Dream G1 deferred )

( MELTING, MELTING! and other problems )

( Fics that like to f*ck with your brain )

And that, as they say, is that. For now, anyway.

So, I was checking out DeviantArt activity and saw someone added one of my images to a collection. I checked out the rest of the collection and then got to thinking, "Damn, I've actually designed a lot of Otaku Senshi over the years, I just haven't touched up and scanned their images to upload." Usually my default action then is to create a mock-up in the most up-to-date KiSS doll generator, Sailor X v2.10. It's fun! But not so much when I can't remember what one of my Otaku Senshi looks like, only her backstory.

As many people on this FL may know, my favorite season of the Sailor Moon anime is R. I loves me some angst. It's funny how, back when I first started writing fic, I thought I could never write TAFF (Twisted and Fuzzy Feelings, aka Romance + Angst/Drama). Now it's practically ALL I write.

( And they called her Trinity! )

I also found out that I have sketches lying around of...
* Sailor Mirage and her best friend thought-dead, Sailor Lotus
* The Neo Sailor Senshi (an old term now, but a new term when I first came up with what was going to be a webcomic), who look like Senshi in Trek uniforms
* Sailor Cascadia
* Sailor Star Beam and her friends, Sailor Star Sparkle, Sailor Star Blaze, and Sailor Star Crystal (Team Mary-Sue)
* Sailor Nautica (not related to Sailor Nautilus, the one I just posted a DeviantART mock-up of)
* Apsu and Sin from the "Another Story" RPG, plus part of a Radina and a tilted Verna
* Old, old sketches of the Senshi in various outfits I based off ones I saw in a Barbie collectible magazine
* A halfway decent sketch of Usagi/Serenity in a dress covered with butterflies
* A sketch of most of the Senshi in their "Quicksilver"/Neo Senshi uniforms (Mars doesn't have a right hand for some reason; I suck at drawing hands)
AND a bunch of other random drawings, like a zoned-out Mitsuki from Full Moon o Sagashite, some ass-kicking Akanes from Ranma 1/2, a few Hitomis from Escaflowne, a bunch of Téas from WDKY's early planning stages (I went a little crazy with glitter pens there), and even a series of Ranma characters through time, e.g. Shampoo's ancestors, the original "drowned girl" that was the basis for the Nyannichuan, a Tendou girl who resembled Kasumi but was an ass-kicker, etc.

I'm halfway tempted to scan and maybe touch up some of them so I can upload them to DA so my account doesn't look like it's all Sailor Xv2 stuff. :P Thoughts?

Just how tall is Sailor Pluto?

This reads like a logic problem:

* Sailor Pluto is approximately the same height as Sailor Star Maker.
* Pluto is a few centimeters taller than Uranus.
* Neptune is the same difference in height from Uranus as Uranus is to Pluto, and Neptune and Star Fighter are the same height.
* Star Healer is a few centimeters shorter than Star Fighter and Neptune.
* Jupiter is the tallest of the Inner Senshi.
* Jupiter's eye level is about equal with the top of Venus' head.
* Mars and Moon are about level with each other, and with Jupiter's shoulders.
* Mercury is a few centimeters shorter than Venus, about level with the bottom of Venus' bow (but not the ribbon that hangs down)
* Jupiter is a few centimeters taller than Asanuma.
* Asanuma and Unazuki are the same height.
* Moon is shorter than both Asanuma and Unazuki by several centimeters, but she is taller than Shingo and Chibimoon.
* Shingo is at Moon's eye-level.
* The top of Chibimoon's head (not her buns) is level with the bottom of Moon's front bow/ribbon on her Sailor Fuku.
* The top of Moon's head (again, not her buns) is level with the middle portion of Black Lady's buns. Thus, Moon is taller than Black Lady.
* Saturn is level with Neptune's tiara, and about 1-2 centimeters above Pluto's Garnet Rod, the top of which is level with the top of Pluto's head.

Something interesting to note: I got all the above from height comparison charts in the Materials Collection artbook. There's a Sailor Team profile on Vol. 10 of the original manga (not the reprints), but it doesn't include height for any of the Sailor Senshi. The only place where I know the heights are is in the Sailor Moon RPG book, published by Guardians of Order, and they Made Shit Up. Plus, there is no way in hell that I will believe Pluto, the tallest of the Senshi, is only 5'6".

So, how tall is Pluto? Cite sources, please. (That is, if Takeuchi gave heights in another manga or artbook, please let me know!)

Ganked from obabscribbler

How about a brief introduction for yourself?

I go by Azurite (heck, even one of my uncles has been calling me that), but anyone from my early Sailor Moon fandom says knows me as Andi (short for "Andromida"), and I'm not too shy anymore about telling people my real name: Meredith.

Fabulous! And what got you into fanfiction to begin with?

Sailor Moon was my first fandom, and as most people know, there was a huge wait between the the first part of Sailor Moon R and the second, let alone the three remaining seasons (the fifth and final of which still has not been formally licensed and subtitled). So I started to go on the Internet to look for spoilers or something, and I ended up reading this story about a "Sailor Milky Way." I thought it was genuinely a synopsis of episodes to come. I later found out that the image was just a flip-flopped one of Hotaru Tomoe (Saturn) from one of the artbooks that I'd never seen in the States, and Sailor Milky Way was just a fan's invention... hence, my first encounter with fanfiction.

The idea of writing ideas as I saw them, and then sharing them with other fans to see what they thought sounded pretty appealing. I wrote my own horrid first fic, which was my take on just who Haruka and Michiru were (this was back when all I knew of them was what I'd seen on stickers that I collected), joined the SMRFF, learned from some masters, and eventually wrote my own Sailor Moon fics.

From there, it's history.

I see, so what kind of fanfiction do you like to write?

When I first started out, I genuinely thought fanfiction was meant to fill in the holes that canon created. Of course, if you have a canon where things DO finish, and DO go a particular (agreeable?) way, then you can have fun writing about alternative universes or timelines/realities, and all number of "what if" scenarios. Originally, I wrote WAFF --warm and fuzzy feeling fanfiction. I couldn't see myself ever writing something angsty or full of dramatic tension. Nowadays, that (and the blend known as TAFF, or Twisted and Fuzzy Feeling) is more my style, and I aim for drama and realism (in terms of characterization or development) in all that I write, regardless of fandom.

I can't really do oneshots or drabbles and the like-- I babble A LOT, and when I get an idea, it tends to be the multi-chapter type. Even right now, with a 36-chapter fic in the works, I have plans for 2 sequels of equal or near-equal length, plus a myriad of other multi-chapter fic ideas, ideas for other fandoms, revisions...

Do you find writing easy? Hard? What are the most difficult aspects of writing you struggle with?

I find it in-between. It's always hard to develop a simple idea into workable prose, something that isn't just "this happened and that happened, the end." I use fanfiction as a way to improve my own writing, because even though I'm using someone else's characters (and often scenarios, because hey, there's no such thing as an "original story" anymore, right?), it allows me to discover new ways of thinking and writing in general.

I'd like to think fanfiction has helped me come a long way from taking just plain stupid ideas into really fully-developed stories about a character's growth or experiences, about his or her feelings about some event or other person.

Also, a lot of what I've learned comes from snippets from craft writing books or kits, things like "nothing you say should be useless, everything you say should have a reason for being said."

Write a few sentences or so of your favorite pairing or character.

I'm an Azureshipper for the Yu-Gi-Oh fandom, which is my primary OTP (I do enjoy a classic Revolution or Peachshipping piece every once in a while, and Azureshipping also tends to read better when there's a side pairing. I've seen Stumbleshipping done pretty well too, among others.), but in other fandoms I may waver-- I like Usagi x Mamoru *AND* Usagi x Seiya in Sailor Moon, but also Haruka x Michiru. Even if I don't write it, I may read it (provided it's well written). For other fandoms, I usually like one pairing exclusively: Kaname x Sousuke from Full Metal Panic, Ranma x Akane from Ranma 1/2, Inuyasha x Kagome from Inuyasha, etc.

Out of all those, it's usually the female who I feel most attracted to, and I would detest seeing any of them characterized badly. You'll notice that, even in my romance fics, I tend to focus on the female half-- I suppose that's on account of me taking to heart the phrase "write what you know." So even if I have no experience with Millennium Items, massive mecha, gender-bending water-activated curses, demons, etc., I still KNOW what it's like to be young, female, and wanting love, so I tend to write about that.

Are there any fanfiction clichés or trends you’re sick of or just can’t stand?

I'm going with obabscribbler on this one: Bashing. I hate, loathe and abhor character bashing.

Are you guilty of any fanfiction clichés you hate? Or any other ones?

Well, of course when I started out, I was guilty of making the characters OOC, or exaggerating one or two of their qualities into their whole WORLD. I am guilty of the "trite" plot-- the plot device that is overused to death, but I like to think I can put a new twist on it, just as a challenge. WDKY supposedly fit that bill, because the idea of killing off Anzu's parents was a common one for any fics starring her (at the time I started writing it), and it's a lame plot device to get two people together. But, all things considered, it's still worked out pretty well despite that.

What was the first fandom you wrote for, and do you still like/participate in it?

Sailor Moon, as mentioned above, and yes-- but very rarely.

Name your OTPs or most frequently written pairings/characters and explain what it is about them that you love to write.

As mentioned before, Anzu x Seto (Azureshipping) is my OTP for Yu-Gi-Oh, but I've been known to enjoy a few others with Anzu involved. I adore dramatic love triangle (or polygons), too. To keep talking about them, rather than going on about those other pairings I like and already talked about, I like Anzu and Seto because they have SO much potential. They never struck me as characters who hated each others' guts and were wholly incompatible, nor were they characters that had never or could never meet and have any sort of relationship. They HAD interacted, they HAD opinions about one another. Neither of them were the "star" of the show though, so fanfiction about or involving them meant digging deeper into what little glimpses of characterization the canon offered, and developing it into something interesting and unusual. I love to write either of them in such a way that people feel that my Seto could very well be the canon Seto, if someone else had just taken the reins of Yu-Gi-Oh and written it for a different audience.


What would you call your writing “style”?

Long. Except for this answer. :P

Do you read other people’s fanfic? If so, what do you find yourself reading the most?

Oh, whenever I can. I prefer to read by recommendation, but when I discover or get into a new fandom and I don't know anyone there, I do the usual "hunt and peck" search for it. And that usually involves me Googling a fandom's fic archive or FFnet and scouring C2s or the filter system-- but even then, there's a lot of Back-clicking involved. I find myself reading Romance and/or Drama the most, because I love to read the styles and genres that I myself write. It's great to see other people taking the same basic idea (Romance or Drama, etc.) and then veering off with it in an unexpected way.

Name one thing you’d LOVE to write, but have been too afraid or shy to do.

Smut. :P The temptation's there, the IDEA is even there (anyone here remember "Kaiba the Virgin Sacrifice"?), but I just can't get the lady balls to do it. I keep saying I won't start anything new (especially anything long and potentially multi-chapter) until I finish WDKY, anyway.

Do you have trouble taking criticism? Or worse yet, do you have the dreaded bloated ego?

I don't think I have a bloated ego, because almost every review, even if it's short and not littered with praise, flatters me that it even exists. It's so cool that someone took time out of their day to say something about what *I* wrote. I love thinking I've made someone think or feel a certain way due to my writing (style, ideas, etc).

Sometimes, though, I do feel I take things a bit personally, especially when I interpret critique one way and the writer may have meant it differently. But I guess that's bound to happen with all kinds of reviews: being online means you're not psychic,you have no way of knowing what sort of "intent," if any, was behind the review. I can't stand anyone who attacks a writer personally based on their writing though-- that is flaming, and I find it senseless and stupid.

When you write, is there anything that helps? Music? Quiet room?

Music, almost always. A lot of my fics have unofficial soundtracks as a result of that, and some of them even read as being "songfics" because I found them so inspirational. I don't like to fall into the trap of writing fics that essentially rehash the same story from a song, or use a song's title, but it has happened.

What inspires you?

Who the hell knows? My ideas hit me like bolts of lightning, and if I don't write them down immediately, I lose them. WDKY was just a random idea that came about one day when I was working at the box office of a movie theatre. I had to try and write every bit of the idea down on small scraps of paper that I didn't have nearly enough of, or enough room for in my too-tight regulation pants. About the only thing that job was good for was the inspiration I got during the dead hours.

Lastly, how would you sum up your fanfiction experiences and yourself as a writer?

I'd like to think I've come a hell of a long way since I first wrote fanfiction WAAAY back in the day (I think my first fic was titled "The Cosmic Rebirth Series"), and I've certainly been able to write new and different styles, and MORE of it (I have chapters that are almost novel-length). But I'm always looking to improve, and for that reason, I can't really see myself leaving fandom completely. It's always great to meet new people and brainstorm, too. Honestly, my life's been changed by fandom, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Tag six friends because they’ll hate you for it.
guardian_kysra
atlantian_magic
bewareofdogz
svelterose
a_white_rain
dqbunny

The reason why WikiFic's been practically dead the past... oh, very long time is because I'm always the one stuck on the backend trying to do everything. And let's be honest, a 22-year-old girl who is NOT majoring in Computer Science is probably not going to be helped as quickly as some major entity like Wikipedia on the MediaWiki-l mailing list when it comes to tech support issues and basic understanding of syntax.

Long story short, I'd love to make other people SysOps, but maintaining WikiFic goes beyond that; I'm not really sure how much my server can do, and I'm frankly not willing to shell out the amount for a dedicated server that probably CAN do all the bitchin' things that Wikipedia and/or Wikia can do. I wanted my own space so that I could control it how I wanted, and not be subject to the ads, multiple regulations, and freak cleanup squads that other Wikis have.

WikiFic has proven to be a great resource, but not too many people seem to be keen on helping out with it. Thankfully, it hasn't been vandalized recently, and there are people still adding articles, but not a whole lot of people who adhere to the rules. Wikis are monstrous projects, requiring TEAMS, not individuals.

There's always a million things on my plate when it comes to WikiFic; right now, I can't get styles working the way I want (likely because I don't understand Wiki syntax), templates love to kick my ass-- I'm missing a bunch of them-- and SVG images aren't rendering properly and I know it's not a browser issue, because Wikipedia's and such images display just fine. I don't really know how SVG images are supposed to work anyway, and while I know I have the GD library enabled, I don't know where to go from there. There should seriously be a "Wiki for Dummies" website or something...

Anyone who wants to help or can point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it. Otherwise, WikiFic will probably just sort of fester in the corner collecting dust until I check it again someday... truthfully, getting Epiphany up is my #1 priority, followed by maintaining my FLs, Dragonfayth, and my LJ communities. I'm still working on the damn 30kisses purge, and I don't know whether the other mods are alive, dead, busy, or working.

It's frustrating both having to rely on others and to be stuck doing something yourself, and I can't seem to tap into the effective middle ground. Thus, I think I'm just going to take my leftover Chinese food and watch Sailor Moon for the rest of the evening. Ciao.

LJ Year In Review: Post the subject and/or first line of the first entry for each month of 2007.

01: Yay.
02: Sometimes We Fall Apart. (FL)
03: I'm Back, I'm Bold, Maybe Even Beautiful! (FL)
04: Dollies And Other Such Things. (FL)
05: What The Duck?
06: Well, Okay
07: [SM] [smrff] [Usa Week] Born to Be
08: So, Yeah... (FL)
09: Hmmgrr.
10: Blogger's Challenge, Day One
11: Sometimes I Want To Strangle Editors
12: One Thing I Want To Do With My Life

Okay, so I don't post friends-locked entries more often, on average. I also don't post creative works very often at all, on average. That's only if you're looking at the entries from the first of every month of 2007, though.

This meme got me to post "Born to Be" on FFnet, though it's unbeta'd. It didn't have any commentary on the LJ entry, and I'm not sure if I remember any feedback one way or the other from SMRFF, but hey, at least it's out there, now. And to my re-read, it was decent-- so, to Epiphany it goes! I don't know why it took FFnet 3 tries just to upload it. Why the heck does it consider HTML a "last resort" for formatting? Uh, HAY BRAINZ!? HTML is better by far than DOC format... :P Why, you ask? Well, uh, gee, because it's UNIVERSAL? And wtf about not preserving formatting? If you can make bold in HTML, it's preserved-- PERIOD. Ugh, FFnet, you are made of FAIL.

I wonder what other LJ-only fics have yet to make it to FFnet, for whatever reason?

I kinda want to watch Sailor Moon now...

( But wait, there's more memes! )

Yay, two out of three finals done! Believe it or not, my JOUR 371 (Women, Men, and Media) final didn't really feel like a final so much as a normal class session where she was lecturing and asking for discussion. I asked her after class how I did, and if I was looking at the right line of her gradebook, I got two checks, and one check-plus, which translates into a B, I'd say-- that's just for this portion of our grade, 10%; more of it is made up by the media deconstruction, the media critique (50%), 30% by other tests, and 10% by participation/performance. Overall, I'd say I'll probably get a B, which makes me happy, especially since this was a particularly difficult class.

Moving on, I also got "conditionally approved" for a Chase loan, which means I can go to Washington if I get the money on time. If that works out and I get the appropriate academic credit (hopefully 12-15 units worth; at least 6 from Journalism; it's working out just how the other 6-9 will be applied), then YAY, WASHINGTON D.C. HO!

But if not, I'm going to try not to be disappointed. I think I might be biting off more than I can chew again, even if WII and ISLP are both great opportunities for a number of different things. The great thing is, it's not like if I don't go to WII, I'll be doing nothing here at CSUN-- I got accepted into Take XX, part of the New Student Orientation Leaders team, and I'd still be working with NSLS and NSCS. I definitely don't want to stop being involved with either of them, even if I do go to Washington.

Now, if I do, there's another choice to make: to go to Macworld Expo, or not? If I do, not only can I see my friends and/or parents (most likely the latter, since... to be honest, guys, would any of you want to want to go to a Macworld Expo with me? Dad I know would, MAYBE Mom --but not together, no way, no how) again, but it's just plain fun. Plus I could always cover it as a Special Contributor to the Sundial, maybe? I applied to be a Copy Editor there, too, but I didn't officially GET the position even though the new editor-in-chief asked me. Basically, everything hinges on WII.

If I do go to WII, I'd only have Jan 14-16 to be at the Expo, since I have to check in in Washington, D.C. between 9am -5pm and be at the informal mixer by 6pm. Two days at an Expo isn't bad... but again, it's about money. Then again, if I go to WII with a loan backing me, money won't be so much of an issue anymore. It'd be icing on the cake if I managed to get a paid internship.

Speaking of icing, I really want some cupcakes... Baba said we can buy cupcakes and/or cupcake mix on the way home. I think my holiday baking spirit is getting kicked in. And crafting, too. A certain someone shall be receiving a handmade card soon (hint hint: that person is on this FL!)...

What else? Well, I've gotten some of my Secret Stalker gifts from Aria's Ink-- I decided to participate this year on a whim, and it's got me not only working on Epiphany, trying to revive a better version of Mare Serenitatis, but also looking over my old SM fics (let's be honest, except for maybe "24," and the beginning of "Quicksilver," they ALL suck; my writing has come SUCH a long way). I also did some fanart, but ssh! No one can know my secret stalker identity until the event is over... I might even try to resurrect an old idea and work on the 2003 Aria's Ink holiday competition contest.

Well, what with my tablet semi out-of-commission, coloring anything in Photoshop's a real bitch now (doing it with a mouse is... ugh, it's like taping my fingers together and trying to paint), so the fanart might have to wait until I get a new one, or unless I take the marker-colored version I did AFTER the scan and fiddle with that... but personally, I'd rather Photoshop the color in, as my inking process... well, let's just say it didn't go as well as I wanted. I'm not too much of an artist... ;_;

I'm feeling a bit more hopeful today than I was yesterday, so I hope I can channel that into studying a bit for my last final and then working on some creative (and possibly cleaning) endeavors tonight, whatever form they may take... there's always a lot on my plate, frosting or no. :)

Ah, I love reviews. Even the "ow, you could have phrased that a bit differently" criticizing (and not always "constructive") reviews. It's nice to know people still know/care about WDKY, and it's always the review flow that keeps me writing. Thankfully, there's not much about WDKY26 that's a mystery to me; as per the usual, it's just a matter of translating my planner file into prose.

I shoulda-coulda-woulda been working on it practically this entire afternoon, after I got back from covering another honor society's induction ceremony for the Sundial, but I ended up playing Star Ocean 3 for hours. Literally, HOURS. I took the clock out of the rec room, so I had no idea what time it was until I briefly noticed Baba and Grandpa had gone to bed and it was eerily quiet-- and then the sprinklers outside started. I looked at my watch on the table and I had an "ohshit!" moment. It was 12:37 when I looked at my watch. O_O yeah, color me in shock.

Truth is, I don't like SO3 all that much, at least compared to SO2. Sure, plenty of things make "more sense," like having the Craftsmen's Guild instead of Skill Guilds, and Workshops rather than you being able to create anything anywhere. But so far I have yet to produce a single good thing-- the only things I've patented are rare items I've found, like the cider and the anti-poison amulet. And I've already shelled out tons of Fol to improve upon Paterny's Workshop, add Lines, and try and make things from scratch! Urgh, what a pain. I know about individual Talents; in my game (not sure if it randomizes), Nel's a good cook, Fayt's a great engineer and writer, and Cliff's a decent smithy and engineer. But despite not having patented anything in her name, Nel's still the top-ranked Inventor. Go figure.

Anyway, that system bugs me... so does the map system, mainly because it makes my eyes hurt and it's practically impossible to get 100% of a map even in two walkthroughs of an area (the first time you walk through and then the return trip, because it seems every journey is Point A to Point B and then back again). It's interesting to be able to either choose your enemies or dodge them... but then IN battle, the Killer Move system got replaced by this weird Short-Range/Long-Range thing along with Strong vs. Weak attacks. Apparently X is Weak attacks and O is Strong Attacks. And I DETEST the Fury concept, along with the idea of MP-Death. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that every RPG's battle system should involve copious amounts of button-mashing, but supposedly easy battles in SO3 take me at least 5 minutes EACH because of all the running around, recharging of the Fury gauge and using of Blackberries and Blueberries. Players don't recharge very much (if at all) at the end of a battle for either HP or MP, and to make it even WORSE, Save Points don't recharge you! Only staying at an Inn or finding a Recovery point will, and you know how uncommon that is!?

Still, hours. And I guess despite the fact that it's frustrating and slow, part of me does want to see Fayt meet Sophia again. :}

Lastly but not leastly, I'm not going to keep it a secret until it's live, because I want to generate BUZZ:
I've just been approved for the TAFL-listed (sounds a bit redundant) fanlisting for Sailor V/Aino Minako x Kaitou Ace! Nothing quite beats the original angsty Sailor pairing. I'm going to be getting some manga fanart and putting together this FL shortly... and when I do, please spread the word and join! (I was honestly surprised this FL didn't exist before.)

So on a whim (?) I decided to check and see if there were any HQ scans of the reprinted Sailor Moon manga. I didn't find any (yet), but there are textlations (by Alex Glover, of course) out, and I DID find the Materials Collection scanlation, which was something I'd been contemplating starting a while ago. I don't think it's finished though, even though it's pretty well done over at Soul-Hunter.com.

Anyway, some interesting things I noticed while looking both at my original Japanese copy of thre Materials Collection and the scanlated version...

( Surprising Senshi Facts! )

That's actually it for now re: the Materials Collections and INTERESTING FACTS (because that's where The Oracle translations end). Until more show up somewhere (because heck if I can read Takeuchi-sensei's handwriting! I don't know where any textlations are...), I'm done. :P

I am thinking of scanning my SM anime "wedding gallery" cards though, because I haven't seen those anywhere else, and I DO have the complete collection... :D

I'm weird with my manga. I detest the original Mixxzine/Tokyopop release of Sailor Moon, so unless Del Rey translates Kodansha's new re-released version, I will never again buy it in English. The fact that I still own (technically, somewhere back at my mom's house, because I doubt she's gotten around to selling it yet) any of the comics besides the anthology magazines is saying a LOT.

I hated their translation of Peach Girl, too, but I got sick of trying to translate the Sae's Story (aka "Reverse Side," which is its proper title, and sounds a lot better than "Sae's Story" anyway... though the concept of "Reverse Side" is likely lost on a lot of English-speaking audiences). So I bought all 3 volumes of it (and, parentheses-loving me adds, it doesn't seem enough! Who'd've thought Sae could be seen in a sympathetic light?), and while I *STILL* hate the typesetting and the half-ass translation job (literally, only the speech bubbles seem translated, and not appropriately, either!), it's better than never really knowing the full story because I got bored of being the only one trying to translate the volumes as they came out AT A SNAIL'S PACE.

That's true for a lot of other manga, though. Either I got impatient with the English release (and now it's done), or I initially hated the English release (but now I'm "eh" with it and just don't want to slave over Japanese anymore). So I'm contemplating selling my random volumes of manga (Hinata 120%!, Gentleman's Alliance+ Vol. 1 in Japanese, Fushigi Yuugi Vol. 14 in Japanese, Alice 19th Vol. 1 in Japanese, Hana Yori Dango Vols. 35-36 in Japanese, and possibly all 7 volumes of the original Full Moon o Sagashite in Japanese.) I'm also STILL trying to sell some volumes of Skip Beat in Japanese, since I like the Viz translation of that decently enough.

If ANYONE is interested in ANY of those volumes/ANY of those titles, please let me know.

I'd like to put them up on eBay, but alas, my last attempts at selling them there flopped like a wet noodle. Any suggestions? Maybe eBay Japan... or Amazon Japan or something? -_- Of course, I'd have to sell them for below list price, which defeats the purpose of me EARNING money to buy the English adaptations... another reason why the market as a whole SUCKS, because English translation of manga is SO much more expensive than the original, and when was the last time you saw an ENGLISH adapted manga with a DUST COVER!?!??!!?

Which manga might I be better off keeping the Japanese for? I've at least already got a huge portion of the English adaptations of...
* Fushigi Yuugi (at least Genbu Kaiden)
* Hana Yori Dango (aka Boys Over Flowers)
* Skip Beat

And while I disliked the original releases of Peach Girl, they have since re-released them (though they stupidly renumbered them what with that whole "Change of Heart" sequence) in the right-to-left format. I'm fairly sure the sucky typesetting hasn't changed, though. I might just keep the originals for Peach Girl, even though the last few storylines were too complex for me to translate.

Has anyone who has bought the English versions of Full Moon really liked/hated it? Ignoring the story and art, what do you think of the translation? The appearance? The print quality?

Also, is buying either Fushigi Yuugi and/or Gentleman's Alliance+ worth it? FY is already completed in the most-recently revised version, but I have no idea how long GA+ is or will be, and I've heard it's got some shonen-ai elements, which, to be honest, aren't quite my bag. Plus there are *NEW* SB titles that I want to get, so I'd rather focus on those after I sell the ones I don't want, e.g. the Japanese stuff.

HEEEEEEEELP.
also, can't sleep. Dunno why.

So I've had the strange urge to clean, now that
a) my jaw isn't hurting SO bad... I even managed to eat a WAFFLE for breakfast this morning (albeit covered in syrup)
b) I beat FFX for the first time last night... there's no New Game+, it seems, so I can go back to my last save and get Everything Done Into the Ground (which means attempting to beat some of the monsters from the arena, getting Kimahri and Wakka's Ultimate Weapons... even though technically I can customize some existing ones to be ass-kicking, etc.) For the record --and I'm not ashamed to admit it-- I cried my eyes out. Thank god for FFX-2, really.

Anyway, so I'm trying to clean up a box of mine so I have a more singular, organized space to put my school supplies for the upcoming semester. In cleaning out one of my many boxes of "scrapbook stuff" (because I'm general like that), I found an old scrap of paper from a Whole Foods (I think) back in Petaluma, when I lived there with Dad WAY THE HELL BACK WHEN. I wandered into the eclectic bath soaps section, which includes incense and the like... and there was one section on planetary symbols... don't ask me a) how I remember all this stuff or b) why it was organized that way, it just was.

Anyway, I wrote down all the symbols on this scrap of paper... and lo and behold, one of them is that elusive symbol I mentioned ages ago when I found some of that magnificent Sailor Moon fanart over on Sailor Ida's Fanart Gallery! (SailorGalleries.com, for those who don't remember). I didn't remember where Sailor "Persephone's" symbol came from... and despite constant searching, I couldn't find it. Maybe it, like the old Pluto symbol, is simply retired! But now I'm rest assured in knowing I wasn't being delirious in thinking I'd seen it before!

( For the record... )

Now I'm relieved, because it's digitally inscribed! I wasn't (that) crazy!

I woke up at 8am this morning with a stomachache from hell. Why? I have no clue. All I know is, I hate the possibility of it being caused by food that was delicious and that I love to eat whenever I get the chance. In this case, it's either the Chinese food I ordered after work yesterday (when I met Grandpa at Vons) or the Blueberry Morning cereal I had for a late dessert while I was watching a Sailor Moon S marathon.

(By the way, smrffers-- Usa Day *WILL* start next week, and I might even contribute something for it if I can get my brain churning. I'm already thinking of some articles for the SM-section of Epiphany, which I really want to get live before the end of summer.)

So I called in sick, because I'd gone to bed with a horrid headache, and the slightest tinges of it were telling me it was going to come back. And it did. I went back to sleep and woke up again (around 10:30 or 11) feeling like someone had partially chopped my head open (think headband-style). I kept touching my head thinking I was going to find some disjointed part of my skull where I could just reach in and touch my BRAIN! Eew. Shudder-twitch-EEW!

So I'm still feeling kind of ill (want to eat, but something tame-- maybe Cream of Wheat with just raisins and some cinnamon?), and almost scared to go back to sleep even though my head is pounding-- I mean, what the hell prompts dreams about getting beheaded improperly? (Does this have something to do with my wanting to go to Egypt and everyone in my family always saying "No, not this year, you'll get your head chopped off!"?)

Speaking of Egypt, yesterday I got my copy of "Pharaoh Gold" (which includes the Queen of the Nile: Cleopatra expansion) yesterday, and I tried to install it-- it seemed to work okay, but I couldn't run the game, even with either CD in the drive. I didn't get an error or anything-- nothing came up. There was an hourglass, then nothing, just an arrow sitting there all "Dur, what you want me to do?" So I figured, maybe there were some remnants from the copy of the game I had (the single CD version that was all scratched up-- a U.S. edition, I should note, because the Pharaoh Gold copy is from the U.K.), so I removed the new program, edited the registry to remove all data about the OLD game. I made sure it took effect in the Add/Remove programs list, and then re-installed Pharaoh Gold when I got home.

...Still nothing. I thought it was odd that my Windows drive was saying it was about 8GB when I clearly specified in Parallels for it to be expanding up to 15GB, and all these damn "Low on disk space!" errors were getting on my nerves, so I searched the forums, discovered Parallels 3 no longer has Image Tools (which you would use to resize the virtual disk image after you'd created it and put stuff on it), so I had to use this other DOS-based tool to do it. So I did, and I also defragged the drive... but still, NOTHING, even after the defrag (not the Windows one, either-- a much more intensive one I found a 30-day trial for) proclaimed my drive "healthy."

I click on the game icon in the start menu, my Games shortcut folder, or in the Recently-Used programs list, and NOTHING HAPPENS. No error, no pop-up, no nothing. Just a brief arrow-with-hourglass, and then NOTHING. >_<

HEEEELP! What do I do?

Sometimes just for the hell of it, I combine two topics on my mind into one warped subject line.

I had my first final today; it was for my Editing class. It wasn't too bad, actually; liberal use of my AP Stylebook really helped, as did a proofreading after I printed the first draft. I think I did pretty well, all things considered; I even got an A on the two papers Witten turned back to me, which means I might be doing better in the class than I thought.

As for the toilet, last week sometime I noticed the rec room bathroom toilet had flooded AGAIN (Let's put it this way; I was busy playing FFX-2 and had to take a break. I take ONE step within the vicinity of the bathroom, and my socked foot goes SQUISH in a very yucky way. I realize the extent of the damage, and holler for Grandpa). This time the damage was so bad (by the time we noticed it) that Baba just got fed up and said she wanted the carpet torn out. Because it happened on a Friday (I believe), we had to wait over the weekend for everything to clear up. And that meant the carpet stayed wet (despite us having the fan on and the windows open whenever we were home), and started getting mold and mildew. No good for someone with allergies, like me. So Baba kicked me out of the rec room fairly quickly whenever I was in there watching TV or playing video games.

There are guys from "American Craftsman Restoration" (their mascot is a guy that looks a bit like Captain America, RIP!) tearing out the carpet downstairs-- or half of it, anyway. Turns out there's concrete underneath. And the walls of the rec room are wood panels, and they go to the floor, so the ones near the bathroom were wet, too. So those might be getting torn out as well. Baba wants to replace the flooring with hardwood, like the kitchen, which won't be so bad; it'll be easier to move furniture in there, and sweeping will be easier than vacuuming around all that furniture. But the room's already the coldest in the house, and a hardwood floor won't make it any warmer. Not that anyone ever likes sleeping in that room (anymore) anyway.

I do hope AAA pays for the damage, because it's crazy how much we keep paying for this kind of thing to get fixed, and it just happens again, no helping it.

Anywho, I've got a bit of a to-do list for the rest of the day:
* Take the bookcase pieces and put them in their box again, before it starts raining and the box outside gets damaged beyond usability
* Work on a "character development" planner for WDKY, so I don't lose track of characterization and what is "OOC" in that universe or not (this is surprisingly important for WDKY25, as I'm coming to learn)
* Study for my graphics and Media Law exams tomorrow, which involve reading, reading, and more reading
* Assemble my books that I want to sell back to the bookstore
* Clean up my room a bit (!?)
* Try writing/planning a bit more of my scholarship book
* Read what I bought yesterday of Death Note (up to Vol. 12; is that the last one, or is there a 13? I can't remember...), and Ceres: Celestial Legend (missing volume 1 and 13, but oh well... special order!)
* Work on WikiFic

I was also thinking of a rant/poll of sorts to post here later, about what frustrates me about shoujo "heroines" and their romances. I tend to like the romances where there's a very explicit (as in "clear" not as in "sex sex and more sex") reason why two characters love each other and get together. In re-reading some of Ceres: Celestial Legend, I got a bit frustrated with Aya's obsession with Touya; I remember volume 1, when they first met, and all the subsequent volumes... I really don't think it's very justified why she falls for him when she's got Yuuhi, who loves her and cares for her very much, and doesn't bother with all the "I don't know" and mysterious amnesia/implanted memories stuff. I do get WHAT Touya is and what he represents, but... I don't like fickle or weak heroines. I still like the series, though.

And that, in turn, got me thinking about other series that I really like-- Sailor Moon was the first, and like so many other Moonies, I was a big Usagi x Mamoru fan. But why? It was well-established in canon, and it's not like there was ever a really good rival for Mamoru (let's be honest, Umino never stood a chance, Motoki had a girlfriend, Demando was evil, Haruka was gay, and Seiya was an alien AND appeared when Mamoru was gone and couldn't really "fend" for himself). I'm sure there's more to say and couples this can and cannot apply to, so I'll save that for later.

Aaahh, what a wonderful feeling. This is weird. I've bid on eBay before, but never was I so "obsessed" (I put that in quotes for humor's sake) with refreshing the page to make sure *I* didn't get sniped. And lo and behold, with less than 30 seconds left, someone tried to outbid me, thinking that I foolishly wouldn't get notification in time. Little did they know I was parked right in front of my bidding page, watching like the "eagle-eyed editor" I am! (Compliment from Prof. Witten this morning. Yay!)

BUT I SNIPED THEIR ASS!

Okay, so I paid a bit more than I wanted to for Mom's Mother's Day present, but considering it's so much cheaper than list price, I think it's worth it. Plus it's a practical gift, and when Mom gets it and she'll be "...I can't believe it. You actually bought it." it'll be the greatest day ever.

I never thought I would like sniping! I was channeling Weird Al, that's for sure. What fun!

Speaking of happiness, yesterday at the Pub (eatery here on campus), I overheard a group of high-schoolers (don't know what they were doing on campus, but they were definitely too young to be students here at CSUN) arguing about something that sounded suspiciously like Sailor Moon. I sort of skulked around as I was waiting for my order, seeing if I could overhear something that would confirm it-- and sure enough, I heard "Mini-Moon!" Now, I may not be the biggest fan of the dub from Super onward (not that Stars ever got dubbed-- or ever WILL), but I just started giggling. Then I asked the trio what the argument was and none-too-modestly said I could probably help settle it (being an expert on Sailor Moon... but... what? It's sort of the truth! I mean really, short of individual names of youmas and the like -and I do know *some* of them-, or anything about the musicals, I don't think there's much about Sailor Moon that I DON'T KNOW!).

Turns out the argument was over whether Mini-Moon was Sailor Moon's daughter (*snorfle*). The lone girl thought yes, yes of course she had to be! While the two guys with her doubted it, because after all, Mini-Moon appeared when Sailor Moon was *still in school.* (Oh, the scandal!) So when the question was out I said, "Damn right." (I really ought to watch my language around younger kids. I mean if they really were in high school, I'm sure they've said/done/seen worse things, but you never know who's got the most impressionable mind) And then I explained that she traveled back in time whenever we saw her, although technically she's over 900 years old...

And the girl triumphantly said "SEE!?" I told them I was surprised they'd been talking about Sailor Moon, and I thought it had to be impossible/coincidental that what they were saying SOUNDED so much like Sailor Moon, but it turns out the conversation had some roots in the fact that I have a small Sailor Mars charm on my backpack, and that spurred the subject. It's good to know that even though Sailor Moon ended well over 10 years ago, it's still very much alive here in the USA. :)

Today I finally got the chance to go to Japantown (although not back downtown to H&M, where I wanted to get some more clothes... *le sigh!*) since Dad called this morning and said since he didn't have a place for me to stay in Alameda overnight, he could just pick me up. Yay to that, because it means I can take more things with me than I could have if I had just gone to meet him at the Ferry Station today... actually, I thought I'd be in LA again by now, so by leaving tomorrow morning, we are cutting it a little close, since the big Passover dinner's tomorrow, and I bet Dad'll be tired from the drive.

In any case, I'm glad I got to go shopping and enjoy a crepe at Sophie's. Truthfully, there wasn't much in the way of manga that I wanted. I almost bought all of the current releases of Skip Beat!, but a) I have many of those volumes in Japanese already and b) I can probably get a discount by buying them en masse at Borders in Northridge, rather than Kinokuniya. Still, I ended up buying a new "DIY: Design-It-Yourself" book that looks kind of interesting, and the two Sailor Moon S and SuperS DVD boxed sets from the Japantown Video Store.

...And, as the subject line says, they're faker than... well, the most fake thing you can think of. Sad thing is, I halfway knew it even before I put the money down for them, because I noticed several things:
(1) The wrong cover for both of them (which I knew from looking at the eBay guide to spotting fake SM DVDs)
(2) Bad spelling on the covers
(3) "MEPG-2" format listed on one box (though so far they play in my DVD player)
And then when I finally bought them and cracked open the plastic, it was "waxy cardboard" with glued-in (albeit not too sloppily) DVD holders, and the covers of the Uncut SMS DVDs (since that was the one I started with) inside, rather than individually-sleeved DVDs or anything like that. Then the back of the DVDs said the most incriminating thing of all: Made in Taiwan.

So they're fake, but I got so fed up of trying to find the legit things through legit channels (and I surfed a lot-- I went to all the DVD sites I knew of, anime stores, C&C Central here in S.F., Pioneer's own website, and countless other places), so when I saw the boxed sets for right there, I grabbed them. I paid $162 for them both, which is probably a rip-off, all things considered... and I *am* halfway tempted to tell Mom to try and return them for me (even though I know the store has a policy of no refunds on opened DVD boxes), but then I would not only NOT have the money (because again, I doubt the store would refund to my credit card, and what good would $162 in Jtown store credit do me in LA?), but I wouldn't have *ANY* Sailor Moon to get my hands on.

If someone could truly promise me a legit source of SMS and SMSS, I'd gladly fork over the money, because I believe in supporting the original creators of a series whenever and wherever possible. But sometimes distributors here on this coast make it awful hard. I'm not saying they should perpetually renew licenses, but I do think for things as big as SM, it would pay to do "anniversary editions" or something if they could. Who knows how relations are now between all the big companies, anyway...

I checked out the first episode of S, and aside from a few lines of dialogue getting unsubtitled, they're not too bad. I even tested the English audio track, and sure enough, it's the annoying S-dub I remember getting glimpses of back when it was on Cartoon Network. I think the main menu is supposed to be animated and a bit crisper looking than it is, but aside from those few peeves, I guess everything's all right.

I've been feeling kind of ill off and on this whole week, which sucks (and is at least partially my excuse for not having caught up on my Japanese, bad girl that I am). Tonight after Mom, Gary, and I saw "Zodiac" at the 1000 (I think only ONE person from when I worked there is still there now, and he didn't see me), we went to Mel's near Parker (or whatever that street before the old Coronet is called), and I couldn't even finish a whole half of a grilled cheese. Admittedly, I had a Kid's Pack of popcorn and a soda at the theatre, but still, I was hungry after the fact... it's been like that for days, where I feel hungry, and I can even feel my mouth watering, but I just can't eat. The thought alone almost makes me nauseous. I don't know why though. It's not like I *want* to not eat, to lose weight (I'm already underweight or on the low-end scale of "normal" for my height), or anything. And I hate wasting food.

I felt so shitty yesterday, I thought for sure it was some form of hangover from my one lousy mango margarita (admittedly, I think it really *WAS* a whole pint), and Mom was saying something about how tequila isn't exactly a trustworthy liquor, but... who knows? My whole body's just on the fritz.

It's been nice being back here in S.F., in a way, and I do wish I could stay longer and help out more, see more people, and get more done (both doing stuff-wise and finishing things that should have already been done a while ago-wise). But I do sort of look forward to the big Sweet family gatherings. Shaina I know is going to want to trim my hair and probably pluck my eyebrows, but that's about as far as I'll let her go. I honestly think my time is better spent catching up on homework. Now that I don't have to worry about people butchering the computer (because the PC really isn't my problem anymore; I only use it for the rare PC games I have the random urge to play), they can park themselves on it and I won't care. Wireless is nice... :D

That said, I better try and sleep, since I will be waking up in less than 6 hours to shower. But I guess I can always sleep in the car ride back to LA.

Oh yes, and my birthday is in 7 days. :D :D :D :D :D

So any Sailor Moon fans on my FL?

HA HA HA.

So I went to my cousin Jill's last night for some scrapbooking, but after dinner, we ended up playing charades and comparing the original Sailor Moon to its dub. My cousin was actually hrateful for exposing her kids to culture! :D But the whole experience has me itching to rewatch Sailor Moon Super and SuperS, so I think since I have the money, I'll finally give in and buy the box sets.

Alas! Most places don't carry them any more, because they've been out of print since... what, '05? Anyway:
(1) Does anyone know where I can get them?

I found a few reasonably-priced sellers on Amazon, and when I asked if one of them could send me images, they sent me a generic Sailor Moon SuperS DVD cover image... but I'm not sure if it'll be legit. Even The Oracle warns that Amazon doesn't do anything about Marketplace sellers passing off forgeries as the real deal. But if I can't GET the real deal anywhere, what ELSE am I supposed to do!?

(2) Hoping for the best, can anyone who currently OWNS the Sailor Moon Super and/or Sailor Moon SuperS boxed sets (I believe they were called the Heart Collection and Pegasus Collection, respectively) snap a picture for me of the outside of the box and of one of the DVDs, so I know what to expect?

I know that Geneon recently CHANGED the boxed sets-- apparently what used to be 3 DVDs is now 6, but they're all in a slim-line case, rather than the thicker cases that I remember, with reversible artwork? Or were they originally 6 DVDs? It seems improbable that the entirety of SMS could be crammed onto 3 DVDs... even Sailor Moon Classic had 6 eps. a disc on 8 discs...

I used to actually collect images of all the Sailor Moon products, and it makes me sad that I stopped doing that... if I hadn't, I might actually HAVE the image I need. I'll hunt around, but I doubt I have it... still, it'd be nice to build Mare Serenitatis again. :)

Do you know the bathtub analogy about how one's brain works? An idea pops into your head, but there's others. They all pop, bubbling up and disappearing as quickly as they come. So my bubbles recently went something like this:

Christmas... Christmas pictures to show... oh look, that Sailor Christmas I made with the Sailor X 2 Generator from SailorGalleries.com ... crap, no PlayFKiss on here. What? No PlayFKiss or DirectKiss for Mac? Damn... ooh, UltraKiss! Kinda slow, but it works. Ooh, new updates on the SailorGalleries site... not for the generator KiSS doll, but oh well. Ooh look, this artwork by RainbowMoon is nice... hey, who's that? She's new. Oh, a fan-senshi. They're all right. Hey waitasec, I've seen that glyph before. Who IS she?

Here's the fanart that started it (or rather, ended it). Another fanart site calls her "Persephone," but I've never known Persephone to have a glyph of her own. Planets and moons, yes, but I don't think there *is* a planet/moon/asteroid named Persephone (please correct me if I'm wrong). But that sigil on her head- I *HAVE* seen that before, but I can't remember what it's called! I know it's not Vesta, Juno, Pallas, or Ceres, nor is it Chiron. And I know all the other planetary symbols, including the "alternates" for Uranus and Pluto, the "lost planets" and the few moons of various planets that have symbols. So what the heck is that one!? Can anyone tell me? (And show me another site that backs it up?)

This artist has some killer fanart of TONS of fan-senshi, including "remixes" of the Witches 5 as Senshi, the next (several) generation(s) of Sailor Senshi AFTER Sailor Chibi Moon, the Opposito Senshi from the Another Story RPG (with new names, but generally the same uniform), among others.

ETA: Linked to the right fanart, since SailorGalleries has been a bit restructured. Now everything is on SailorMoonFanart.Net.

Okay, so BBTV was a bust-- you need a TV or another device that accepts video input for it to work... stupid me thought that you used your BBTV connection to view TV on your computer, kind of like how my roommate does. So I have this massive BBTV box which I cannot do anything with. Thankfully, my roommates said they'd call Yahoo tomorrow and find out what they could do.

Second is, someone on SMRFF suggested I try and get the SM episodes I'm missing via this website... which uses Sendspace, rather than their own domain/bandwidth, so of course, there aren't enough slots for me to download one episode, let alone 60 or more. I noticed they had an IRC server, so I made to get myself an IRC client for the Mac, but even the most simplistic one (made to look like iChat) doesn't seem to want to connect to irc.rizon.net (the server with a bazillion and a half channels) via ethernet OR wireless. So I don't know what to do. Maybe LimeWire, or Torrents, if I can find them. I'm pretty sure Sailormoon is no longer licensed in the U.S., but I don't know if that means VKLL's old subs will suddenly reappear or what. (If anyone knows where I can snag some, let me know!)

Also, if you think Japan is "land of the anime," you're not too far from the truth-- every grocery store, clothing store, etc. has anime in it-- well, sort of. Pretty Cure, Toei's latest magical girl series, is everywhere in some form or another, and the boys' equivalent ranges from Dragonball Z (most of the time) to the occasional One Piece. I have yet to see Yu-Gi-Oh *ANYWHERE* in great abundance. What I find baffling about Pretty Cure is that the new season is a spinoff-- called Pretty Cure Splash Star, and though the girls look and almost act exactly the same as their predecessors, they are a) from another universe, b) have different titles, powers, and mascots, and c) have no discernable relation to the original Pretty Cure seen in the first two seasons of the show. COLOR ME CONFUSED. Why not make the "new" Pretty Cure look different, rather than long-haired versions of the old Pretty Cure? And what HAPPENED to the old Pretty Cure, anyway?
I don't know anything about the series and have never watched it-- that's just what I've learned from looking at products. :P

In other news, WDKY25 is coming along-- I've got 2-3 scenes done already, with something like 3-4 left to go, if that. I think I'm having way too much fun with Bakura in this fic. If anyone is up for beta'ing (assuming I get it done this week), please let me know.

Blue Eyes and Apricots is back to functionality, I've noticed; before, for some strange reason, notification emails never made it to me about new members joining, and even when I checked the panel, it didn't list new members. I added several members manually, and since then, 3 members have joined and I've been notified. So we're nearly 450 members strong! The Fanart section is still gone though, because there doesn't seem to be a method I can think of for hosting the fanart short of doing a password-protected ML/email account or folder on the domain-- and even then, I know people will skim "the rules" and inevitably end up using the images in ways they shouldn't.

Today Holly and I went out toward Akatsuka; I ended up buying a new pair of hi-top Converse (even though what I *REALLY* need are new boots and ballet flats) that are so dorkalicious (dip-dyed rainbow colors!) that I'm a dweeb just for thinking about buying them (and worse for actually doing it). I also bought a new purple long-sleeved shirt (when can I resist?), the elusive Ginger for my Pumpkin Pie this week, and a few random things at the glory that is Daiso (the 100 yen store). But I'd say the best part of the day is how we went to this Italian restaurant called GROOVY.

I saw it, and Bruce Campbell's voice just came into my head. Over and over. It kept me grinning the whole time, even though I didn't understand the concept of "Set A plate" fully. I ended up getting chicken and tomato spaghetti, corn potage, and a salad with a rather funny-tasting dressing. I ate as much as I could, and felt no guilt about leaving leftovers. It was good, but the portions here are huge for me. Maybe moreso considering they don't do takeout!

Well, I better get to sleep so I can finish up my homework in the morning, have a decent breakfast, and spend Monday running around like a chicken with its head cut off (as I always do). Hopefully I'll get inspired enough to finish WDKY25 in one sitting!

Ah, I'm a poster child for T-Mobile now! I got my Motorola RAZR V3x in the mail yesterday morning, even after all the brou-ha-ha with eBay. I don't know why they removed the listing (the specifics of wireless_experts' so-called policy violation is kept secret for "privacy reasons"), but I called WE up and told them I got the package just fine, and everything works.

I was worried for a bit-- the manual mentions a USIM card, which some places had me thinking was different and not compatible with a SIM card, but they're the same size and essentially do the same thing; since Asia and Europe are ahead of the U.S. in the features game, there are some things I won't be able to access, but nothing that I'll horribly miss.

My bill is... not small, but I can live with it. Around $60/month for unlimited text messaging, 600 Whenever minutes, Unlimited Nights/Weekends, and web access for downloading games and apps, checking my email, etc. So yay for being connected. What's weird is:
* I got about 3 strange text messages today, where the only content was a non-reply address: something that looked like this: ^@
It had no content, couldn't be replied to, and was just THERE. I got other text messages from T-Mobile just fine, but 3 TMs I didn't get at all. So if you tried to TM me or something... er, I didn't get it.

* Even though I've got the T-Zones web access enabled, when I searched through the directory for Games and Apps, nothing comes up, I just keep getting menu after menu. I talked to a T-Mobile rep earlier who made sure I had all the right software and everything, and my MPT (Mobile Phone Tools) is the latest version, but I keep getting paranoid that even if the V3x is a part of the RAZR family, that it doesn't support all the things I want (i.e. Bejeweled). I'll wait until tomorrow afternoon to make sure, then I'll call them back up again. But so far, everything works fine.

And before you ask, no, I don't think I got ripped off. I got the new Cosmic Blue RAZR V3x, a headset, data cable, OEM software, leather side case, car charger, signal booster, U.S./Japan charger, and European adapter all for $269. What killed me was the $22 sales tax because WE is based here in Los Angeles, and of course, the shipping, but other than that, it's fine. This will be my new permanent phone for use here *AND* in Japan. Sucks that I can't get one of the new "complementary to female needs" phones that are coming out next month in Japan via DoCoMo, or simply a cool phone with Osafu-Keitai, Infrared scanning, etc. But why get those things if I can't use them here in the States, anyway?

I also have to go to a Sprint Store to transfer all the data off my old A660 Vision phone; they can't do it over the phone, and they couldn't do it at the kiosk at the mall, so it's my only option. I didn't get a data cable when I first got my phone, and I had no idea what I was missing! But I've already entered some numbers manually, and it's actually not that hard to assign ring tones and pictures. Matter of fact, I already have the MIDI ringers of "Ai no Senshi" and "Motto Suteki Asa ga Kuru yo" from Sailor Moon... not that I know of anyone in particular that would MATCH those ringtones, but I thought it was cool. Actually, the sound system was so good, I probably could have used the instrumental versions of the MP3s and they'd sound tons better!

...Speaking of which, is there actually an instrumental/karaoke version of Ai no Senshi!? (I know there is for MSAKY). Oooh yes, baby, yes there is. Now, will someone tell me why people publish their playlists online? I mean, it's like bragging "Look, I got all this music, but I won't tell you where it's from!"

Actually, the Memorial Song Box has almost every damn Sailor Moon song in existence, but it's going for $433 USD on Amazon Japan right now. Can you say YEAH RIGHT!? I know I'm missing a lot of tracks, but I'm not THAT desperate (says the girl who paid $322.21 with shipping and taxes for a phone... yeah, yeah).

Something else Sailormoon-y: you know how on the manga version of the Sailor Moon S movie poster/Luna-is-human arc, Sailor Moon's hair jewel is facing the wrong way? They fixed it for the anime version (note: Diana is missing from the anime version, because they didn't introduce her until SuperS), but why didn't Naoko Takeuchi ever redo the image for the Materials Collection or somesuch? I always thought that was weird-- and I have the poster version of it (where someone gets cut off, and Luna has an unusual patch of red hair, but other than that...)

Note: links from MangaStyle and SailorMusic.Net. Not that I think bandwidth usage from my journal should be an issue, but check out the sites to see all that they have to offer. I can always host the images on my own server if requested; I only direct-linked for the sake of speed. (I also volunteered to be a mirror for SailorMusic, but the owner Michelle never got back to me. *sniff* I don't want to let cool sites like that die due to lack of hosting! I also volunteered for the Sheer Lunacy! encyclopedia, which I would *LOVE* to see completed... but again, no response).

This is mainly directed to smrffers, but any other SM fan is welcome to answer... and heck knows there's a wide network of people on here from SMRFF that aren't on/don't know about the LJ group, or haven't/don't want to friend other/former SMRFFers here on LJ. Nonetheless, if you know them, pass it on; I'd love to hear opinions from all across the board:

It is interesting to compare Mamoru's portrayal in the manga, where he is very affectionate and romantic, and clearly cares for Usagi a great deal.  It seems to have been a conscious change to make him less so for the anime, but I do wonder why it was done. --Chris Kern, AFSM 7/5/06

I actually kind of agree with Chris' assessment. Mamoru's a downright jerk in the anime, and I've always thought so, but if I had to pick a canon to work with for the rest of my ficcing career (however long that is), I'd always pick the anime. Mamoru is more FUN in the anime I think, because he's not some two-dimensional perfect prince who can always snap out of it at the last minute, always save the day, always summon some magical strength, etc. etc. Even though I cursed colorful words at him (or should I say, "Darien") when I watched the dub of Episode 61 (Usagi is shocked! Mamoru wants to break up!/The Cosmetic Caper) on YouTube yesterday, the very concept of him breaking up with her BECAUSE OF DESTINY (the very thing which brought them together in the first place) just opens up a world of possibility, and speaks volumes about his character.

But it's well known that they don't exactly plan everything out to a tee when it comes to the anime, which explains a multitude of inexplicable facts, things that don't pan out with the manga canon, etc. Understandably, it's due (at least in part) to the manga being slower to release, hence the filler arcs. SuperS bombed ratings-wise, so Toei was taking a big chance with Stars, doing their best to keep it in line with the manga, but still be original and surprising. So when it comes to changing Mamoru's personality so utterly, is it a good thing, or a bad thing?

Are there factions for his "counterparts," as in "I hate anime!Mamoru, but manga!Mamoru is teh hawt!" or "PGSM!Mamoru is teh hawt!"? Which Mamoru is your favorite version, and why? Do you think his different characterizations/traits/personality alter the way he deals with Usagi, and how the series pans out?

For the record, I went home sick today, slept from 10:30am to about 2pm, woke up to see my newly-installed REMOTE-CONTROLLED ceiling fan, and then went grocery shopping. Now, I have to rough-sketch the painting I want to make for my mom, because I've been procrastinating on that, just like on everything else. :P

Happy Birthday, Usagi Tsukino aka Sailor Moon!



(a few hours late. :P)

So I watched Episode 34 of the Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon anime, "Sparkling Silver Crystal! The Moon Princess Appears!" today, known as "Crystal Clear Destiny" in the dub (I watched the ADV uncut sub, though). I took 530 screen caps, including several sequences perfect for making animated GIFs and mini-movies for icons. They're all high-quality caps (JPGs, high res), and the set includes 21 contact sheets/index files, with all the files in chronological order, named for easy finding.

And you can find them all on alt.binaries.pictures.sailor-moon. If you want, I can provide a ZIP (or 2) for direct download, but I'd encourage everyone to check out the Usenet group, and especially participate in the alt.fan.sailor-moon discussion for "200 Days of Sailor Moon"! You can access AFSM through sites like Google Groups, but binary groups will have to be accessed through your email client (such as Thunderbird or Outlook Express) using information provided by your ISP (all you need is the nntp.yourisp.com/news.yourisp.com and a username and password for that ISP). If you need help setting it up, I'll be glad to help, since I want more SM fans to get involved in the discussions!

I might start making lots of Sailor Moon anime icons soon if I get the chance... if the loverly ladies over at sm_ichallenge want some base images, you know who to annoy. :D

( Probably one of my favorite episodes throughout the whole series )