MILES to GO || before I sleep

There's a lot of discussion floating around the web about what the 2013 Sailor Moon anime announced by Nico Nico Douga at a Tokyo event this past summer will be about.

Will it be closer to the original manga?
Is it a reboot of the original anime?
A remake?

No one "in the know" is talking right now, so that leaves fans (and those of us old-school enough to call ourselves "Moonies") speculating. Here are my questions for the future of the Sailor Moon anime:

IF IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE TRUER TO THE MANGA...

1. Does that mean we'll get to see Minako's "original" origin story, taking place in Japan (and a few other wild places like China and Greece), along with Kaitou Ace?

2. Will "evil" be more black-and-white instead of having a tragic backstory, being manipulated by a greater power, etc.?
2a. Will we see Queen Beryl's "tragic" backstory along with the origins of Queen Metallia?
2b. Will Rubeus and some members of the Black Moon Clan be mere one-shot characters meant to be destroyed by powered-up Senshi, while Demando and others are more fleshed-out and possibly tragic (because they were being manipulated by the Death Phantom)?
2c. Does that mean some enemies will die quicker than they did in the original anime, where they may have repented (Nephlite), been healed (the Akayashi Sisters, the Amazon Quartet), or been "reborn" without the influence of evil (Galaxia)?

3. Does that mean the Senshi will have more, fewer, or the same amount of powers, attacks and abilities? (In the manga, they had powers that never showed up in the anime, like Mars' "Snake Fire," or Jupiter's "Coconut Cyclone." But the anime also had original attacks, usually one-shot ones, like Mars' "Fire Soul Bird" and Jupiter's "Thunder Dragon")
3a. Does that mean the Senshi will have less focus, because their stories will be like "filler episodes," similar to Chibiusa's Picture Diary, the High School Exam Battles, etc. and Usagi will be the primary character throughout the main storyline?
3b. Does that mean Usagi will be more mature, as she was in the manga? (In the manga, she didn't cry nearly as much, was VERY mature about her sacrificial decisions and those of others, dealt with grief in a very different way, was much more determined in her role as a Sailor Senshi/a lot less silly, etc.)

4. Will it still take place during the original timeline of 1992, or will the timeline be bumped up to modern day, similar to the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon live action TV series?
4a. Does that mean the fashion, activities, and accessories of the characters will change (cf. PGSM, where Usagi's transformation "pen" got turned into a cell phone)

IF IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A REBOOT... (in that it will feature new plot arcs, possibly new characters, or new look at the same classic story, similar to how PGSM did with the first season of Sailor Moon--it somewhat followed the manga, but was very original in many ways too)

5. Will it follow any of the plot lines from the PGSM drama, such as...
5a. Princess Serenity is the one who destroyed the Moon Kingdom (a.k.a. Silver Millennium)
5b. Minako is already an idol
5b1. Minako is dying from an unnamed disease
5c. Mercury turns dark before/instead of Mamoru/Endymion
5d. Mars doesn't consider herself a "friend" of any of the Sailor Senshi, even Usagi, though she has an interesting, tolerable relationship with Minako
5e. Princess Sailor Moon exists, and will destroy shit
5f. The plot will stop after the first season
5g. If there is a "special," OVA, feature film, or other sort of continuation, it will take place in the far future, be it when the Senshi are in/graduated from college, Crystal Tokyo (if the original manga/anime's plots are followed at all), or similar.

6. Will we see original characters from PGSM, Sera Myu, or characters briefly mentioned in the manga like Mio, Sailor Heavy Metal Papillon, etc?

7. What about characters that were unique to the original anime, like Yuuichirou?

8. Will it even focus on the original Sailor Senshi, and not Chibiusa and her team, the Sailor Starlights, a team in a different solar system/time period/galaxy?

9. Will it even have the same storylines at all, or will it have a fixed number of episodes in which any and all story arcs must be divided into?

IF IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A REMAKE... (different from a "reboot" in that it will follow the SAME plot as the original anime, but have improved animation, stereo/5.1 surround sound, HD video, more special effects, etc. and MAYBE update a few things like cloud storage instead of CDs/floppy disks)

10. Will it have protracted transformation sequences like the ones from Pre Cure, Toei's current magical girl franchise?

11. Will Toei even be responsible for animating it? (Does Naoko Takeuchi have the rights to get it animated by another company if she so chose?)
11a. Who would be good at animating a formerly multi-million yen franchise, if you could pick any other studio currently operating right now?

12. Will the remake produce all-new merchandise, like the coveted Star Locket, if a version of it exists in the new anime? (This ties into the question about series length too, because while modern anime tend to have a preset, known number of episodes, Sailor Moon as a series is a known cash-cow, and it might be in the best interests of the license holders to either name a huge number, like the former anime series' 200 or simply not announce how many episodes the whole series will go, but go an episode at a time, adding story or prolonging story arcs as necessary.)

AND FOR ALL OF THE ABOVE....

13. Will it be dubbed into English/Cantonese/Mandarin/Spanish/Portuguese/Thai/Polish/etc. and will English-speakers be able to get DAMNED TALENTED VOICE ACTORS who commit to a continuous contract until series' end, barring horrible disagreements with their co-workers, bosses, Naoko Takeuchi herself, or Acts of God?

What brought all this on, you may ask? I've been watching the original Sailor Moon anime with my boyfriend lately, and he's asked me what I like about the current arc we're on (R2), how it compares to the manga (which he's skimmed through my Kodansha English volumes of) etc. I've come to the conclusion that much as I love the original source material, the R arc of the anime--and all its changes--will always be near and dear to my heart.

Also, Ai no Senshi (the song).

Mooniecode [1.14.15a]
SM:6m+ F:sMo>Ma++ΩPl<+ Sa>+:vAyall>+ Asall<+:aMo>+Ka+:pR2 D:sCh-:vZoEs--:aSh:pSS X:a68dic|200jp+Ω:m60jp|60mx|35xm+ O:d+:c--:s-:o?a-:h++:x- P:a++:s155:w?:f: eGBrg:hBrD+:t--:cWJ:bA-:zAr++:gf+Ω

To both prove I am not dead and am still thinking about Yu-Gi-Oh and to clarify something I've been stewing over (which, in a convoluted fashion, revolves around WDKY), I ask you this: What are the core concepts of the individual Millennium Items?

I'll start: we already know the Millennium Puzzle's concept is "unity." This is stated at the end of he series, and well-supported throughout. Its "power" is to bring people together, to bring forces and abilities together. This makes sense, because a puzzle itself is made up of many disparate pieces. (That said, the "puzzle" wasn't originally MADE to be a puzzle--it somehow became one in the years AFTER the Pharaoh was sealed in it and when it ended up in the tomb that Sugoroku Mutou later found when he was a young gambling explorer.)

If the core concept of each item somehow ties to what we've seen it do otherwise, then we have these rough approximations of the rest (my thoughts, anyway):

Eye - Awakening, seeing an individual's decisions (can be circumvented by rapidly changing one's mind, or acting on "impulse," as Yugi and the Pharaoh did in the battle with Pegasus)

Necklace - Foreknowledge, seeing the future based on the current path that events are on (can be circumvented by "going with one's gut," and doing something surprising...this is similar to how the randomness of an individual can alter the "power" of this Item, the way the Eye can be wrong, but it has more to do with "seeing" events for many people than seeing the thoughts of one person)

Ring - Guiding/Placement, seeing the connection between things (where the Millennium Items are, if one is close); transferring souls from one place (the body) to another (Bakura did this in the DMRPG arc, didn't he? Or am I getting confused?)

Rod - Transfer, moving souls from one place to another. This is what Priest Seto did with Shada in the ancient past, right? I'm not sure how to explain Malik's usage of the Rod, since it was pretty screwy no matter how you dice it.

Scale - Balance/Justice/Truth, the weighing of one's deeds versus one's intent, or one's heart versus one's words. Ties back to the Egyptian myth of the heart being weighed against the feather of Ma'at after death; if the heart was heavier than the feather, the person would be devoured by Ammit and never reborn or allowed in the presence of the gods.

Key (Ankh) - Seeing the unseen, seeing the true soul/heart of an individual. But this doesn't tell you what a person will necessarily do, only more of who they are as a person. If the Eye tells you WHAT, the Necklace tells you WHEN, the Ring tells you WHERE, then the Key tells you WHY, or perhaps even WHO (who really is the person behind these actions?). But I don't know if any of the items really tell a user HOW...

I'm not sure about these. Even if you can boil down the Millennium Items' powers into a single word or concept, some of them seem to have overlap which doesn't make sense to me. In canon, they were created via a dark ritual, but with good intent (to protect the people), so it WOULD make sense, to me at least, that these concepts are either vague or can "go both ways," and be used for good or ill. After all, "evil is in the eye of the beholder," right? (Or rather "history is told by the victors.")

Discuss!

Second to last day, folks. Hard to believe it's already been a month! These posts have been bought to you by the letters S and F...for Sailor Failures.

( ♥ » Day 29 – Solar System Soldiers or Sailor Starlights? )

Ah, the question so many of us Moonie fans ask ourselves and others. We take quizzes, we read profiles, we watch episodes and do panel-by-panel comparisons of the manga. But there's still a huge selection of personality in each of the soldiers, from the very first (Sailor Venus) to the newest (Sailor Chibi-Moon), along with those from beyond (the Sailor Starlights), and those that only appear in the manga (Sailor Kakyuu).

But for me? Well...stop me if you've heard this one before! ^_~

Once again, this meme, closing in on its end, is brought to you by Sailor Failures.

I finally got something of the Tumblr system clarified by Frizzy over there, btw. I asked even though it had nothing to do with the Sailor Failures topic (Sailor Moon, obviously), because Tumblr's own FAQ sucks, as does trying to Google the answer anywhere, even on answers-oriented websites. :( Anyway Frizzy, not like I think you read this, but I asked only because I knew you'd answer. So thanks!

( ♥ » Day 27 – Soldier you are most like )

I'm early/on-time, dagnabbit! In the spirit of the other recent posts asking about "Sailor Moon moments that make you feel...,"here's a new one, about humor. Now, there's me: a girl who supposedly has no sense of humor, or if she does, a dark, dry one. (My humor is a mothball?)

But I find the stuff at Sailor Failures quite funny!

( ♥ » Day 25 – Funniest Sailor Moon moment )

I'm a little late for this one, too, but in my defense, I was enjoying some really good meatloaf (!), mashed potatoes, and brownies with my dad and bf. :)

We're getting close on the days here! Even if I am a bit late with some of my posts, I hope to say on March 30 that I have completed all 30 of these topics, and I'm still inspired to write and create things...not just for Sailor Moon or even fandom in general, but EVERYTHING! I do believe this kind of "free challenge" has helped in ways other assignments or challenges have not.

Still, I know I take on more than I can usually handle, which leads to stress, which leads to...projects being left undone. It'd be nice if I had a more formal structure telling me where to go next, what's the most important or what's the easiest to get done soonest, that kind of thing. Wouldn't it be nice if there was some sort of auto-prioritizer that could take things like skill, time, and resources available into account?

Anyway, these are from Frizzy over at Sailor Failures.

( ♥ » Day 23 – Sailor Moon moment that makes you happy )

Okay, so I'm a few hours late for this one, too, but you wouldn't know it by my backdating technique...! But I feel compelled to be honest. What can I say, I was distracted by good food, a hot man, and anime! A wonderful combination, if I do say so myself.

Once again, this thought-provoking post is brought to you by the amazing Frizzy of Sailor Failures.

( ♥ » Day 21 – One thing you wished the show had )

Once again brought to you by Sailor Failures on Tumblr. A macro a day keeps the youma away!

( ♥ » Day 19 – Sailor Moon episodes Subbed or Dubbed? )

Okay, the honest-to-God truth is that I'm a teeny-tiny bit late with this. Two hours late. (But I'm backdating it so it appears properly in my archives. *cheater! cheater!*) It's the first and hopefully only time, so forgive me 'kay? I've been playing Star Ocean 4 a lot today and trying to complete a lot of sidequests....

Once again, another day in the 30 Days of Sailor Moon meme, brought to you by the inimitable Frizzy of Sailor Failures.

( ♥ » Day 17 – Favorite attack overall (villains included) )

And we have reached the halfway point of the 30 Days of Sailor Moon meme, brought to you by the genius talent, Frizzy, over at Sailor Failures. Frizzy is the mastermind behind Four King Hell, a Sailor Moon webcomic that I powered through yesterday...laughing (almost) all the while. It's excellent, so if you're a Sailor Moon fan, check it out. And if you know if any other good Sailor Moon webcomics, point me at 'em!

( ♥ » Day 15 – Best Outer System Soldier attack )

It's lucky day 13 of the 30 Days of Sailor Moon meme, brought to you once again by Sailor Failures on Tumblr. Actually "Sailor Failures" is a pretty fun insult. The dub does some things well.

( ♥ » Day 13 – Favorite secondary character )

It's Launch Day for the iPad 2 here at the San Francisco Apple Store, and while I'm really hyped about everything, it's nice to get away from the craziness for even a little while. So here I am!

It's Day 11 of the 30 Days of Sailor Moon meme, as usual brought to you by Sailor Failures on Tumblr.

( ♥ » Day 11 – Favorite Outer System Soldier (and why) )

I'm glad I started this 30 Days of Sailor Moon Meme from Sailor Failures on Tumblr on March 1st, because I never have to remember what day I'm on...I just look at my calendar!

And now it's Day 9! Time for ( ♥ » Day 09 – Least favorite villain )

Yay, I made it one week into the 30 Days of Sailor Moon meme, the same one found on Sailor Failures on Tumblr

( ♥ » Day 07 – Prettiest/most handsome character )

And now for one of my favorite topics in all of fandom...romance! 'Shipping! WAFF! TAFF! Orange Crush! (Hey, waitasec...)

Yes, it's time for the 30 Days of Sailor Moon meme once more, brought to you by Sailor Failures on Tumblr.

( ♥ » Day 05 – Best canon couple )

So it's Day 3/30 in my attempt at doing the 30 Days of Sailor Moon meme and it occurs to me that maybe I ought to make a tag exclusively for this? So I will, and I'll go re-tag the previous entries. All two of them. :P

( ♥ » Day 03 – Favorite character recently )

Well, it's a new month and a new opportunity to try new things and get back into the habit of old (good) things. Like writing on my blog. Like reminiscing. Like commenting with friends!

So, thanks to Sailor Failures on Tumblr, I'm going to spend the first 30 days of March participating in a Sailor Moon meme!

Some of this may be old news for folks that have read my journal(s) for some time, but hey! Nostalgia's fun!

( ♥ » Day 01 – What age you started watching Sailor Moon... )

So I never actually said what swag I got at Anime Expo! For me, at least, swag a big part of the con-going experience. Panels can be fun (or totally lousy, depending on scheduling, "technical difficulties" and other stupid things), and screenings can be a blast (or put you to sleep because there's no variety and the lines stink), but I mainly go to cons these days for the following things:
* Friends
* AMVs
* Swag
* Cosplay
in that order. All told, I "got" all of those things at Anime Expo, so you could say I had a good time.

( Swagalicious! )

So I'm overall satisfied with what I got, even though the Expo itself wasn't as good this year as last year. That's really a much longer story, but suffice it to say, they were just very disorganized. That makes people irritable and rude, and that makes other people miserable.

( To get...eventually )

So if you happen to be selling any of these or know where I can get them cheap, drop me a line!

So there's only one more week until the very last episode (26) of Inuyasha: The Final Act airs and then it's finally done. Finito. Owaru. OVER.

Having experienced Rumiko Takahashi's so-called endings before, I'm prepared for something out of left-field, but I wonder with all the time she's spent making this story (and whether or not the anime adheres very well to the manga, but I've heard it has), the fact that the anime stopped and started again in a new OAV-type series, and all those movies, etc...could she really cop-out of what the ending just plain calls for at this point? (And I think it's been pretty obvious from the get-go; if anything, Inuyasha at least had an implicit promise established well within the first season.)

( Spoilers for those who may not have seen The Final Act )

I just finished re-watching Fushigi Yuugi: Eikoden, also known as "Legend of the Eternal Light." I'm sure it would have made a lot more sense in the novel form (assuming I understood the idea that it was based off the Fushigi Yuugi Gaiden novels), but the episodes were long enough to convey a plot and...I'm still a bit confused.

( Kaishen! )

"Eikoden" seems to wrap everything up, but it's only left me with more questions.

Typed the first few paragraphs last week and then procrastinated to all hell for posting this. Oooops.

Ah, back from Anime Expo. Actually, I got back late on Sunday night, but yesterday I was so exhausted that I ended up taking Monday off work and sleeping a lot. When I didn't sleep, I played my newest acquisition: Final Fantasy Anthologies, featuring FF5 and FF6, neither of which I've ever beaten. It's making me nostalgic!

I probably should have posted entries each night after I came back, but I was usually so exhausted from volunteering that I didn't. I did do some Live Tweeting though, so I'll touch on a few of the things I mentioned then.

( Day Zero )

( Day One )

( Day Two )

( Day Three )

( Day Four: THE FINALS )

Remember that meme from a while ago where I had a list of fandoms, and people put two or more of them together, and I wrote a crossover fic for them? Well, this is a different take on that.

I've selected 10 fandom crossovers. Pick one and write a ficlet for it, either in the comments or in your journal (and link to it in a comment). Then, post a similar list in your journal, featuring AT LEAST ONE of the fandoms from my list, and I'll do the same for you.

1. Indiana Jones x Yu-Gi-Oh!
2. Iron Man (movie) x Yu-Gi-Oh!
3. Pirates of the Caribbean (movies) x Sailor Moon (anime, manga, or live action)
4. Kingdom Hearts x Star Ocean: Till The End of Time (or Star Ocean: The Second Story)
5. Enchanted x Yu-Gi-Oh!
6. Star Wars (movies) x Star Ocean: The Second Story (or Star Ocean: Till The End of Time)
7. Kingdom Hearts: The Missing Characters (introduce characters from fandoms that SHOULD be in Kingdom Hearts, but aren't/are under-represented/strangely missing even though other members of the fandom are there, e.g. Rinoa, Giselle, more of Tifa or Mulan, characters from upcoming Disney movies like "The Princess and the Frog" or "Rapunzel" etc.)
8. Chronicles of Narnia x Any animated Disney film with a Disney "Princess" in it (note: characters like Alice from Alice in Wonderland can count as a "Princess" even if they're not "Princess" in title, or part of the "official Disney Princess" line-up, e.g. the way Mulan sometimes is)
9. National Treasure x Yu-Gi-Oh!
10. Atlantis: The Lost Empire x Yu-Gi-Oh! (or Indiana Jones)

Yeah, I know, most of them are Yu-Gi-Oh, but I wouldn't have done that if I didn't see great potential. I hope at least one of these gets taken up; I'd love to see what some people come up with for me to do!

Okay, fanits, a note:

If you find a beautiful fanart on Google Images (or wherever!)and decide to use it for your FanLib story image, GIVE CREDIT TO THE ORIGINAL ARTIST. It's easier than it sounds. See, all you have to do is click on that lovely link that says "Original Webpage" and then you can see if the page says something like "My Fanart, (c) 2008 by Your Name Here" or something else, like "by Jane Doe, (c) 2007." The best thing to do is ask Jane if you can use her artwork on your story-- ask via email, if you can find one, or other contact messages left in the web page, like an IM name or a LiveJournal link where you can PM them.

If you can't find such a thing and/or you're too gung-ho and use the image anyway, at least provide the name and URL of the original page where you got it somewhere in your Author's Notes. Seriously, IT'S NOT THAT HARD.

This concept of crediting the people who originally create something is not NEW. People have been using disclaimers to supposedly fend off hoards of evil lawyers frothing at the mouth for decades. Disclaimers don't really stop lawyers from issuing C&Ds if they feel like it, but it's very nice to know that some people care that fanfiction or fanart means just that: it's FAN-created, not wholly original, and has its roots in someone else's work. It's nice to credit that someone who inspired you so, don't you think?

The same concept applies to fic and art: would you like it if someone took YOUR fic or YOUR art and put it up somewhere else. Wouldn't you like them to at least mention your name and where they got it from, even if they didn't ask you originally?

I'm not talking about out-and-out plagiarists here, who take things like art and stories and pretend that said creations are theirs. But technically, if you don't SAY something isn't yours, you're NOT claiming that it isn't. Thus, if you use someone else's art and don't credit them, you're stealing. You're "plagiarizing" their work. And not only is that not nice, it can get you seriously fucked up the ass in fandom. Especially defensive fandoms who really love their fellow fen.

I'd say Yu-Gi-Oh is definitely one of them. We may have splinter groups of people who either don't know the BNFs of one area or another (or if they do, they don't know enough to care, which is fine; it's like that in a lot of fandoms), but that doesn't mean you mess with the people who ARE close friends with one another.

I'm just hoping this (because this IS a real situation, and this is a real "letter" to someone who will probably never read it) will blow over quickly and easily, without any whining. FanLib's far from being perfect, but they do have at least a system in place for reporting people that use images or stories without authorization. They also seem to respond faster than FFnet does (which means they actually respond AT ALL).

Another note: There is no such thing as Yu-Gi-Oh Season 0. There is also no such thing as Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Shadow Games. If you spent a split second looking at the freaking ORIGINAL a.k.a. Toei series, you would realize a few things:
(1) It is based off the early manga, therefore it is much more violent, uses different wording for many things, and different colors, characters, and much, much more.
(2) It has no subtitle. It is simply "Yu-Gi-Oh." PERIOD. END OF STORY.
(3) There is no such thing as a "Season 0" for any show. There are unaired pilots, cut episodes, deleted scenes, etc., but there is no Season 0.

A completely different studio released a completely different SERIES of Yu-Gi-Oh, before the creation of the show that we all know and typically recognize as "Yu-Gi-Oh!" Said show has never been (and plans have never been announced so that it will ever be) released outside Japan. It will probably NEVER be officially licensed and dubbed into English, at least not by any of the current license holders. It has NO CONNECTION WHATSOEVER to the show we call "Yu-Gi-Oh!" other than in name and via a few characters. The show that got licensed and dubbed all across the globe, the series that led to the spinoffs/sequels GX and 5D's, the show that inspired the Yu-Gi-Oh OCG and eventually the TCG is called Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters. The spin-off is Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX.

The only animated show that does not have "Duel Monsters" in its title is the newest, 5D's, and that's not because they don't play Duel Monsters (they do!), but because it's been over a DECADE since the start of the second series animation, so most people have long since stopped associating Yu-Gi-Oh! (the Toei series) with the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise as a whole.

STOP CALLING TOEI'S YU-GI-OH! SERIES EITHER OF THESE TITLES. THEY ARE WRONG AND ONLY SERVE TO CONFUSE PEOPLE UNNECESSARILY. Call it what it is: Toei's Yu-Gi-Oh. PERIOD. It's FOUR freakin' letters, and not that hard to remember.

That is all. Move along, move along.

Swiped this link from guardian_kysra. (Glad you're still alive and kicking, girl!): Fansubbing is destroying the anime industry!

...or so this guy, Arthur Smith, president of Gonzo Digimation Holdings (the company that's Gonzo animation + Digimation studios. Gonzo's the studio behind Romeo x Juliet, The Count of Monte Cristo, Chrno Crusade, Full Metal Panic, Kaleido Star, Last Exile, Kiddy Grade, and many other popular titles...) says.

( A potentially long-winded argument on this, which I could probably turn into an article or an essay if I really wanted to. Maybe I should? )

I'm not really sure WHAT prompted it, but today I decided to join a bunch of fanlistings. I actually thought I already *was* a member on most of them, but it's possible that with sites moving, my own sites going defunct, and so forth, I'm no longer on the lists. That's all changed, since I'm taking advantage of Enthusiast 3's "owned/joined/affiliates" set up (at Azurelist), allowing me to easily add fanlistings I own (Blue Eyes & Apricots being the only one, currently) and ones I've joined. It skyrocketed from about six to over 20, I think. And I still think I'm forgetting more.

And to add to the insanity, there's a pairing that decidedly DOES NOT have its own FL (from what I've researched) and I so want to make it. Even though it's semi-weird, and you'd have to have at least 10 years of fandom memory to even know which I mean. *giggle* I don't want to tell, just yet... but see if you can guess, based perhaps on my icon of choice.

Anyway, finding all these FLs (for anime & manga, at least) is reminding me of all the fandoms I've ever loved, the characters that I've really liked, and the pairings that have melted my heart. And like I said-- there's more. There are even some I'm "hovering" on, like for fandoms I'm not fully into yet, like Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne x Sinbad.

So, anyone have any suggestions? Pairings or characters I've forgotten, ones I really ought to get into, etc.? Drop a line!