MILES to GO || before I sleep

ceruleansan, I apologize in advance for this. I really liked your other recs, and I appreciate you introducing me to FMA, explaining things to me, and reccing fics to me. But this one fic really pissed me off, and I have to rant about it. And the reviewers. But I'm excluding you, because you are my friend, and you don't know how I react to these kinds of things. So please don't take this as an attack on you (especially when I mention the reviewers.)

You know how I normally only read fics if they're recced to me by a friend or some such? Well, ceruleansan was reccing me some "good" FMA EdWinry fics today, and I was very excited. Many of them were quite good -cute or fluffy or whatnot,  and I liked them. I wanted to review, but FFnet wouldn't let me. Well, then I started on this fic called "Falling Away from me" and the content of the fic had me BOILING.

Not like "yum, hot cocoa or green tea" boiling either. MAD BOILING. FUCKING HOT BOILING.

I told Ceru from the beginning, when she described the fic as a "rapefic" that I might not be into it, but I trusted her previous recs, so I read it. By Chapter 5, I wanted to strangle the author. I never write flames (flames defined as a "baseless personal attack on the author, unrelated to the fic" in my book, which this wasn't), but I was certainly tempted to. I left a long, angry review, because this "fic" deserved it. The author (only 15, but writing a Mature fic involving rape AND self-mutilation) is a complete idiot.

I don't know who to blame: the senseless author, her idiot teachers for not educating her, her idiot parents for not educating her, or someone else. Maybe the idiot reviewers for pumping her with praise she doesn't deserve. Do these people not know anything about real women, psychology, human biology? I mean forgetting "getting a clue," these people need a life!

( Here's what I said. )

I admit, I was pretty harsh. And I was even wrong with the morning sickness thing -I've just found out that it can start as early as six weeks, but some women don't go through it until the 7th, 9th, 14th... some don't EVER have morning sickness (I hope I'm one of them, whenever I end up having kids). But ONE DAY? Come on. Let's not be idiotic here.

Am I in the wrong here, for sort of knowing from the start that this might not be something I wouldn't like, but I read it anyway? I didn't read it to get pissed off, and the first four chapters were halfway decent, spelling and grammar aside. And I'll keep reading it (masochist!) just to see if it gets better or not. I'm glad I'm not the only reviewer that's pointed out the airheadedness of the fic author, but... seriously, if she gets her panties in a twist and decides to quit writing, I won't shed a tear or care if the fangirl squad comes after her.

222 reviews, and for what? Character-butchering, clichés, and sheer predictability. Some suspense, and a decent style of writing, but... a decent plot idea (because rape can be done well, just not as a "device" for getting Ed and Winry together) gone horribly wrong.

Honestly. People should be made to give their exact birth date when they sign up for FFnet, and NOT be allowed to post or even read Mature-rated fics if they're underage. They just DO NOT KNOW. Maybe some do, through real-life experiences, but I doubt they can/will talk about it in a coherent, mature way. And I admit, many of my friends on my FL write mature stuff, or have read mature stuff without complaint, but...

Ugh. There's a reason we have ratings and restriction. It's not that BAM! You turn 17 or 18 and all of a sudden you KNOW about rape and violence, gore and sex, cum and other such things... but your mind has developed more to a point where it isn't just stuff you blush and giggle about. You realize how SERIOUS stuff like rape can be. Maybe by then your high school teachers have crammed it into your head that RESEARCH is important, PLAGIARIZING IS BAD, and idiots should not breed!

And fuck, this is fanfiction. I feel stupid for taking it so seriously. "It's fandom, it's fanfiction, I wrote it for me, it's just for fun!" Yeah, fucktard, take your sick immature fantasies OFFLINE plzkthx, because when you put it online, you're ASKING for people to tear it apart. And I feel like tearing this apart, because it upsets me.

And everybody say WHEE! Blue Eyes and Apricots, the web's first, official, and ONLY (English) Azureshipping fanlisting now has -count 'em- 400 members! Congratulations to Rea-kun from Malta, who will probably not read this, but who is the kick-buttingest 400th member. I think I should do something special, but what, I do not know. (No, I will not change the layout. Dammit, that layout was hard enough to put together! :P If anything, I can change the colors and the picture but THAT IS IT!)

Spread the word, yo. We've been getting more members than EVER lately, and it makes me so happy! :D :D :D I have some new fanart to put up soon too (from... you guessed it, Rea-kun!) among other things, so at least there's always some new content to check out. I need some more recs and nominations for the Fanfics and Websites sections too, though, so drop me a line, ne?

This is my last week of school before finals. I have four finals, as far as I know:
* Japanese (duh)
* Women writers of Asia (identification... should be easy.)
* Geography (X_X)
* English (X_X;;;)

I finished my term paper for WWA, and I was quite pleased with it-- maybe because the intended length was 8-10 pages, and I ended up with 14. I had to shrink the font and change the font family to get it to fit. :P This is good news though, because I ended up cutting big chunks out, compared to my outline. This means when I actually get around to expanding it and editing it for my scholarship project (which is to write on contemporary writers of Japan, mainly female writers, and in contrast with male writers), I'll have lots of material to work with.

Today I just finished a paper for Geography on symbolic landscapes, and being the urbanite I am, I chose to write about a fourth landscape (this is in addition to D.W. Meinig's list if three from 1979: the New England village, the Middle-American Main street, and Californian Suburbia): the urban landscape. It was limited to 2 pages and a sketch map page, so I hope I did well on it. Prof. Davidson peered over to my paper while I was attempting to draw a lumpy model of San Francisco. :P

I have an idea for my editorial (that is, my second one, because damned if I can come up with another full-length feature piece in less than a day. Bad Mer, bad!) - California is behind the times. Hell, the whole United States is, but California is the worst off, especially here in So. Cal. Now, I haven't heard anyone vocally railing about it on *MY* FL, but that could be due to other reasons... but gas is at an all-time high here in CA. $3.37 is the cheapest you'll find here in Northridge; in San Diego, you were lucky if you saw below $3.54. I saw a $3.61 there, and Baba said she saw a $3.70-something. I realize gas prices as a whole are going up around the country, but CA's always had the higher prices, because we have so many damn people dependent on gas. We can get gas from the South and from Alaska, but somehow, that still doesn't help us. Then you look at countries like Japan, where their public transportation system is RELIABLE and EFFICIENT. I don't know a lot about their environmental policies (they still allow smoking in public restaurants, so...) or fuel usage, but Hummers wouldn't be popular there, and I saw more minivans than I did SUVs while I was there. It's sort of like telling someone they have to cut off their arm to save their life- people just don't want to do it, even if a part of them recognizes it's for the greater good. Are we stupid or just sick?

To do:
* See various departments about transferable credit from Tokiwa. Get them to sign the forms now so that when I come back, they can't double-cross me. I should do that tomorrow, since I need the course catalog.

* Finish up my online resume at meredithsweet.com :D (Go check it out. Tell me if I'm missing anything, if anything needs editing, etc. The front page only has a short intro right now, but so far, I like it.)

* FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICS. I'm already 2000+ words into atlantian_magic's Sousuke x Kaname piece, which mklutz, you will be pleased (I hope) to note that it's a continuation/sequel to the fic I did for you, "Counting." :) I never intended it to be so long, but... hey, it's just one of those universes. I've also got a good idea for the Ed x Winry piece geniusgirl wanted, so I'll get started on that as soon as I'm done with SxK. Oh yeah, and WDKY24. I want it OUT! OUT, I SAY!

* She is the one named Sailor Moon! I was messing with my Thunderbird settings yesterday (remember folks: compact your Inbox often!) and decided to haunt alt.fan.sailor-moon for a bit, and found a HI-larious post on the possibility of yet another live action SM movie. With Jennifer Garner as the main villain. Hahaha, yeah right. But still, funny. And then someone posted a YouTube link to the elusive Episode 67, wherein Chibiusa BEFRIENDS A DINOSAUR. That was a cute episode, even if the animation style degenerated by about 2 seasons. But yeah, Sailormoon. So totally into it again. :D

* AX? Who here is going to AnimeExpo 2006? I mean the one in Anaheim. Because (I think I mentioned this before) someone requested I go, and there *IS* a brand-new Sheraton there. Mom thinks she can get me the StarHot or whatever it's called rate, which is TEH UBER CHEAP! So why not? I'd just pay for the pre-reg and the shuttle there (if Mom wanted to erase the rest of her debt by paying for THAT hotel room too. She paid for all of Fanime, which surprised the crap out of me) and whatever I saw and wanted that I didn't get at Fanime. And hell, I'll even cosplay Anzu. :D I just want to do a lot of things before I go to Japan.

>_> I hope I got a decent grade on my English paper/Kate Chopin's 'The Storm,' even if it was late.