Some things, both good and bad

Whee, saw Howl's Moving Castle last night. I was just as surprised as Scott to find out there was a Miyazaki film playing at PacTheatres where he works... and even more surprised to find out it's not *really* a Miyazaki film; Miyazaki just wrote the screenplay based on a book that Diana Wynne Jones wrote! Color me shocked! On top of that, we tried playing the "Guess that voice actor!" game, and O_O!! Christian Bale did the voice of Howl! *squeals with delight* His "coolest guy" points have just skyrocketed-- any actor willing to try his hand not just at voice acting but at MIYAZAKI ANIME voice dubbing has my thumbs up! (I noticed that Billy Crystal did the voice of Calcifer, the too-cute and funny ball of fire. I thought it was James Woods the whole time! I mean, he did Hades in the past, and Hades had the whole hair-on-fire thing...)

So yes, in the relationship front I think Scott and I are "okay." He told me that before he left for San Diego, he was "happy" about where things were and where they were (are?) headed-- confident, in a word, I suppose. That made me happy too, because from my perspective, it just seemed like one endless train of Mer doubting everything and everyone. I hate that. So all is well-- mostly, anyway. He hasn't been able to find a permanent place to stay, money's tight, and if his first day of summer classes at Santa Monica was any indication, summer's NOT going to be easy. (Parking, cost of gas, the need to wake up so damn early to avoid traffic...)

And I was supposed to call Southwest Airlines TWO days ago to try and reschedule my tickets up to SF... to try and get to the Fire Festival Dad says is being held at The Crucible (private arts school where Dad's working this summer) from the 12th-17th. I have such lousy timing... ;_; I bet they'll charge me a fortune if I try to reschedule, but what other choice do I have? Maybe I'll call in a little bit... I do have to dogsit for an hour or so before I head to work.

Yesterday I had so much movie food for dinner, I woke up this morning (when Scott left) with a stomachache from hell. I was tempted to call in sick (we're not allowed to actually come IN while sick, but somehow I don't think the stomach flu "counts") but I feel okay now-- besides, I have off the next three days, and I plan on spending that outdoors PAINTING! Yes, painting. I gave in and bought myself a wooden easel yesterday at Continental Art. It was only $20 or so with tax, not too hard to put together (Scott helped. ^_^v)

So here's a question for most people-- how should constructive criticism really be delivered? I mean, I don't like to consider myself some know-it-all in any given area-- even though admittedly, I do know more about Egypt, the Japanese language, and the making of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese than most people. So when I see fanon fodder (e.x. "Akifa") I correct it in the nicest, gentlest way I can-- of course, sometimes I come off as a spastic chicken and you can't interpret it as "nice" at all. One such person blew up in my face and called me an idiot because I said perpetuating fanon fodder was pointless. Bakura is Bakura is Bakura-- end of story.

Another person in another post at another time was asking about the relationship between Akunadin (Priest Seto's father) and Pegasus-- both holders of the Millennium Eye. As we all saw in Battle City, everyone that has a Millennium Item (in the present) had some sort of relationship to a past incarnation... right? Wrong! While the Pharaoh DID have the Puzzle, and thus got incarnated into Yuugi (who coincidentally looks JUST LIKE HIM), Seto in our time never got the Rod-- Malik did. Malik has NO TIES whatsoever to the ancient past, but his sister, Isis, did! She held the Necklace/Torque then, and she does now (in the present) --that is, before she hands it over to Yuugi. Bakura wasn't the first holder of the Millennium Ring, either-- he was the third! Mahaado, the priest that would become the Black Magician, was the second/"original" holder, but he was never reincarnated. Mana, his apprentice, and the girl we know as Black Magician Girl, never had an explicit/clear death scene (aka a reason NOT to be reincarnated), but she never held a Millennium Item, either... (except in the Memory World, which has been established as merely a Memory, not What Really Happened). Plus there are the great unknowns: Kalim (scales), Shada (ankh/key), Shaadi (both of the latter items in the present day) ... in short, maybe there IS no pattern with past and present holders of the Items. Or maybe Takahashi didn't know what he was doing when he started off the Duel Monsters saga-- he probably had no idea it'd be wildly popular.

Anyway, when I posted all this info, I expected to be criticized because of my "corrections" (I always end up "correcting" whenever someone uses the name Seth. Maybe it's just opinion to some, but anyone with the slightest bit of background in religion or etymology will know that SETH is a Hebrew name. And whether you believe the Egyptians used the Hebrews as slaves or not, what it boils down to is THEY DID NOT GET ALONG. Set I can understand. Seto makes even MORE sense. But Seth? NO, NO, and NO! That would only make sense in present day, if someone specifically WANTED to name their kid after a bad Egyptian god!) But instead, someone just said "I love you!" and that made my day. Admittedly, I like it when concrit is backed by a bit of "what IS good" so I don't feel like some absolute failure... but yeesh, isn't there a median? I mean, on one end of the scale, you have the extreme "flame concrit" where it's just criticism or bashing-- maybe with reason, but still, it's not really "helpful" -- and at the other end, you have people that just spout fluff-- maybe they point out one or two things, but again, it's still not HELPFUL!

Oh yeah-- excerpt from Reply #2: I already know that Akifa is a fan-made name considering as I said no one knows his real first name. Which makes your example of calling Yuugi, Jack is void since people know Yuugi's first name.. which is Yuugi.

I'm not giving drama, I'm merely defending myself. I assure you though, I don't loose easily. So either we can continue this bullshit, or you can accept the fact that I put Akifa there for the simple reason that some people call him that.

S/he/it can't even spell "lose" properly. Ergo, YOU LOSE at the INTERNET! -_-; Geez.

Anyway, I better go dogsit.