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name: priya
age: 21 d.o.b: march 9 occupation: josei gamer, ATLUS's uke location: IL sign: pisces/metal rooster/ashwini aura:gold // color:brown alignment: neutral evil evil: kinda evil (7.5) keirsey: INTJ Big O - Cowboy Bebop - DiGi Charat - Trigun - Petshop of Horrors - Excel Saga - lain - Boogiepop - Basara - Tenjou Tenge - Hameln - MegaTen games - MPD Psycho | iggy pop :: david bowie :: rolling stones :: orbital :: BT :: depeche mode :: massive attack :: english beat :: velvet underground :: lou reed :: brian eno :: morphine :: placebo :: magnetic fields :: adam ant :: siouxsie :: cure :: t rex :: clash :: beastie boys :: neuroactive :: bauhaus :: depeche mode :: underworld :: air :: juno reactor :: tricky :: nitin sawhney :: big black :: husker du :: nick cave :: white stripes :: tear garden :: the mooney suzuki :: new order :: brand new idol :: cornelius :: gary numan :: kraftwerk :: boards of canada  
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I honestly wasn't going to do another layout with Kaneko Kazuma art. You've got to believe me. But this is the cover of the Batsu Masters Guide. And it has tentacles. I couldn't resist.
This layout was made under the influence of the song Bachelorette by Bjork (lyrics here). It was late at night. That's my only excuse. eminyu : jurinyu : leda : htk linkblog : ka-chan : mii-chan : krisit : dess : kya-chan : angie : deshi : rnm : chi : xiola : wufie : gregly : koukou : matt : becca : tay : tamanyu : steph0rZ : katie : megly : stephen : kai : rence : shannon : may : joy : kristina charmian : leareth : jae : tin : technomancy : meimi : mara : ragabash : gen-chan : sakki : vituperation : frank : sabina : janaki : lalaland : myra : amei : sarah : ficbitches John Hargrave : Neil Gaiman : Katakura Kei (DJka) : Minekura Kazuya (mangaka) [ peeji ][ archives ][ email ] cruel.com :: the onion :: seanbaby.com :: BC :: engrish.com :: satirewire [ < gamergirl blogs > ] « # musicforgirls ? » |
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Wednesday, May 29, 2002, 10:19 p.m. "What is this giggling? THERE WILL BE NO LAUGHING IN THE LAIR OF MOJO JOJO!"You're right, Frank, I guess that's why the separation of church and state is so important, simply because it's supposed to help prevent extreme actions being taken on religious grounds. And if there's anything that people will fight over (or for) at the drop of a hat, it's religion. >_> I still think it's fucking appalling the lengths people will go to to express their hatred of the US, but yeah, that just shows how deep that hatred is. That's also why we've been so wishy-washy about Iraq, I guess; we want to kick him out, but we really gotta keep a paper tiger in the Middle East to keep the oil flowing and have them fearing Iraq more than they hate us. Just look how we had to conduct the Gulf War...and why we deliberately ended it the way we did. What we have to worry about, in addition to countries with huge religious governments, are the poor, destitute countries. Countries where the people are poor and hungry and dying in the streets, and see the West with both envy and hatred for our wealth and excess. We're rather in-their-face about it when we build McDonalds and whatnot all over the world, things like that. When the country is rich and envious, they stew in it but don't GENERALLY react so violently (c.f. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc etc.) But when the country is poor and jealous, it's terribly easy for a charismatic leader, using both religious rhetoric and a lot of finger-pointing at the West for economic and social ills, to turn a common citizen into a anti-US terrorist. The U.S. is the shiny new BMW of the world, and they just are ITCHING to key it. So if we really want to reduce our chances of another major terrorist event, we gotta keep our eyes on both of those factors: religion and poverty. I should blog more, but I'm falling asleep. Yesterday I went to the bookstore to catch a free concert, found out that it was cancelled, and ended up buying Dostoyevsky's "The Double" in a fit of......pique? No. Well, dammit anyways. I don't have money to spend on books. Damn those bookstores. Damn them to HELL!! Now Playing: GorillaZ - Latin Simone (que pasa contiga) Wednesday, May 29, 2002, 12:47 p.m. "I should pick that up and take a listen....*slaps self* What am I THINKING?"Argh. I don't know why I bother to go in early; no one else in my group is here until around 10:30. So I doze, which is bad. Oh well. As for the title....er, well, I was reading the Onion A.V. Club Music Reviews and...well, just skim it yourself. If you know me at all, you'll know EXACTLY which album I'm talking about. And I literally did slap myself in the face as soon as I considered buying the album in question, too. XD Kya, what do you want me to bring up this weekend besides the games for you to copy? Do you want me to bring my external mod? ^_~ I can rent a volume or two of Boogiepop and bring it up if you want to watch it; it's only a total of 13 episodes. (I will buy the DVD box set very soon o.o) I refuse, however, to rent out the SE Night Evil again. ^_~ Unless asked very nicely. XD I should bring my PS2 and Rez, huh? And Mr. Domino? Anything else? Any music? ^_~ Mr. Boku loves you! Oh, that reminds me. This week's Music Pimping is up; it's Iggy Pop and Tricky this time. Go forth and wallow in the punk and trip-hop. Hya-ha. Oh, and Kya, I ordered my external mod from ExternalMod.com. Extremely fast service and decent prices, I suppose. ^_~ If you ordered a mod now, it could be here by the middle of next week! I think after ACen, when I lost my old mod, I ordered a new one Sunday night, and it was in my hands on Friday. Would say more except that I have work to do again. Check out cnn.com for an article about Christopher Lee. *_* Now Playing: Tricky - Overcome Tuesday, May 28, 2002, 06:26 p.m. Da steht auch ein Mensch, und starrt in die Hoehe,und ringt die Haende vor Schmerzensgewalt; mir graust es, wenn ich sein Antlitz sehe, der Mond zeigt mir meine eigne Gestalt. I wish the weather would just fucking stabilize so I can leave my plants out on the balcony. Finally caught up on all my blogs. I don't know, Frank, that seems to be a rather excessively simplistic view of the situation. So basically half the world hates us because the US is so good and noble and free that it pains their black twisted souls just to know we exist? Blaming it on their religion and saying sweeping generalizations that they can't tolerate stuff if Allah is not mentioned is also silly; in the US we have the far religious right who is just as cuckoo in their own way, such as when we cut off funding for overseas family planning clinics because it was against our President's moral and religious principles, you know? The truth is, both we and they have done things to each other to piss each other off; neither of us is fully on the side of the angels. That doesn't excuse their actions, but I just don't think the situation can be boiled down to simple Freedom vs. Repression, Good vs. Evil. Life's not 2D that way. Man, I was raised Hindu, and I thought that you were generalizing about Islam. ^_~ Then again, I fully agree that certain governments out there ARE that insane and repressive; of course they are. But it's not just their doing. The average suicide bomber or terrorist doesn't do things just because their government hates the U.S., they do it because THEY hate the U.S. Well, anyways. Dammit, Krisit, fine time to take a sabbatical from blogging. This sort of argument is more your forte. :D Now, I suppose I shouldn't be laughing so hard at poor Kya, but I will anyways. BWAHAHAHAHAHA! I'll bring my copy on Friday so you can get copies. Oh, poor poor Kya, laid low by Atlus despite all her best attempts. Isn't Eikichi just the cutest thing? I <3 him! And that was a good point on EiLisa, I never thought about it, obviously. Then again, the silly boy writes his own name as A-ki-chi, so XD Don't worry, Kya, I haven't fully spoiled you on all the character development. There are still some pleasant surprises left for you. Maya gains some character depth fairly quickly; you learn that she isn't really as bubbly and optimistic as she seems. kachin kachin kachin! Art snobbery and pretentiousness in TCoB....er, well, I don't think any of my friends in TCoB think that anime is a High Art Form which makes them great sophisticated critics of anything. If anything, I've just seen people treat things at their face value; if they liked it, they said so, if they didn't, they didn't, and they never put it in terms of something having Artistic Value or whatever. Sometimes I get the impression that it's those that scold people for pretension who are in danger of being pretentious themselves. Oh man, I'm not making sense. I need to nap before I go see Luna tonight. Free concert at Borders got cancelled, so I may just pay the damn $12 and see them at the High Dive. Now Playing: Curve - Doppelganger Monday, May 27, 2002, 05:42 p.m. "This NEVER HAPPENED, YOU HEAR ME? XD"You know what's cool? You can always learn something new and interesting from each of your friends. Now I have to go check out some books from my local library when it's open again. Damn holidays...well, I mean, I like them, I just don't like it when the businesses are closed. Now Playing: Big Black - Bad Penny Sunday, May 26, 2002, 04:39 a.m. YAY *_*Rinno-nee's page is not, in fact, offline. It's just here now. Redesigned and all. I find that I'm still missing three jellies. I have ten of them. I still have three empty tentacles, then! I got there by using this redirect: http://ns.to/idol21/ Now Playing: Ministry - Everyday is Halloween Sunday, May 26, 2002, 03:44 a.m. Another pathetic thing.I've become a CNN.com junkie. It's so pathetic. I sit at work with the window minimized all the time, thinking, "update, you bastards! I want more news! Now! New articles, you bitches!" and I find myself checking it on the weekends too, hoping something newsworthy has happened. I think this developed after I graduated from college and moved out. I lost my cable access and student newspaper in one fell swoop. I suppose this is one of my more admirable fetishes, right? Now Playing: Cornelius - New Music Machine Sunday, May 26, 2002, 03:04 a.m. o/~ Like a bird in flight, I hear you call...o/~Man, I've been a psycho cranky bitch recently. What to do. (Scroll down, really. There's an actual entry on sex, power, and yaoi. It's not just my normal blathering. And I'm selling stuff. Read that too.) Oi, Ka, send Katie and May their copy of Tsumi. I bought that extra copy for all three of you. It cost about 2000Y, BTW. Speaking of Tsumi, I restarted it. I proved my specialized knowledge of Japanese again when Kya called me: Puu: *stretched out on the couch with the phone to her ear, playing video games* Hey, Kya, what's "yoroi" mean? Kya: Armor. Priya, how the hell did you finish this damn game once already without knowing what "yoroi" was?? Puu: Whaat, I recognize the kanji, I just didn't know how it was read so I didn't recognize it when it was in katakana. Kya: See, I know how it's read, but I might not recognize the kanji. Shows how we've learned words, huh? Puu: Yay specialized vocabulary. It was a lovely day today, sunny and pretty warm. I opened my patio door, got my pillow propped against the couch arm, and just lay there playing Tsumi for a couple hours. My couch is angled so that if I look five feet to the left of the TV, I can look out at the trees tossing in the wind, the sunlight striping their trunks. It was so peaceful. The fact that the radio was playing all early-90's music was nice too. I was so relaxed that I shut off the PSX after a while, flopped over on the couch with the phone in easy reach, and just slept there in a patch of sun. Kyakon's next weekend! I'll get to see Ka-chan and Juri and Gregly, whom I haven't seen in quite some time :DD And Krisit too, of course! Krisit, I'm giving you my Shadow Skills manga. Remind me to bring it up. BTW, I'm getting rid of some of my manga. I have Orphen #1-3, some Utena, the Utena movie manga, some Fushigi Yuugi, Duklyon #1-2, etc etc etc. I also have E'S #1-4. If you want any of this (or want a complete list), email me, okay? I also have some doujinshi I'm getting rid of. Some Saiyuki (Homura x Gokuu, Sanzou x Gokuu), some Kenshin (mostly involving Aoshi, but there's a Battousai x Tomoe), um...some funny Ed-centric Cowboy Bebop DJ...some Trigun (Vash x Wolfwood and vice versa)...again, email me if you're interested. I'm mostly just trying to get rid of them, so :D I also have some ff7 ones with Vincent, including the infamous Satan Impact. Yeah, that one. Email me and stuff. Oh! I also have Slayers doujinshi - all Xelloss-centric. Some of it's Xelloss x Lina, but I have a nice Xelloss x Filia. Anyways. I had this thought today - it's probably been thought before, but I haven't read it online before, so whatever. It's interesting how slash fangirls still code sex with power, especially when it comes to picking who'd be seme and who'd be uke. I mean, when it comes down to it, it's just a sexual preference, right? But the impulse is to say, "oh, the delicate, femmy, nice, police one would rather take it, and the big macho rude aggressive one would rather be doing the sex0ring." When if you think about it, doesn't make too much sense. Sure, if you think about it, being uke implies a certain passivity, and being seme involves a more active role, I guess. But when you think, "it's just a sexual preference," then you wonder, why on earth WOULD, say, Shuuichi or Omi or your typical boyish ukes not want to be on top? We don't think, "Well, they're cute and boyish, therefore they'd rather GIVE BJs rather than receive them," or "they're sweet and passive, therefore they'd prefer the lights off rather than keeping the lights on." (I had more interesting examples, but then I remembered that this is a public blog, and I'm sure there's people who read this that don't want to think about all this. XD Maa, ii wa! Ku ku ku.) What I'm trying to say is that in slashing, we still equate sex with power. Sex isn't just sex, otherwise the person's looks or height or whatnot wouldn't make us automatically assume what they like to do in bed. The big strong one is almost ALWAYS the seme to the smaller, femmier one. Because he's more powerful, and you can't imagine a teeny Omi-type "overpowering" or "dominating" the huge bitchy seme type. This is another "well, DUH" post, isn't it? Oh well. What do you think? I'm going to finish cleaning, and then I'm going to sleep. A HS friend of mine called this evening and wanted to get together for a while this weekend. I haven't seen her since early October (she works in Manhattan - so you can guess why I remember exactly when she was last here...) and she wanted to drop by and see my apartment. I haven't had much contact with her at all since we graduated from HS - maybe a total of six, seven HOURS in FIVE YEARS. I looked around my apartment, taking in the piles of manga, the video game systems, the random posters on the wall, the piles of Kubrick and Fincher DVDs, and thought, "Hmmm...........maybe that's not such a good idea." See, she only knows my Public Face from high school, if that makes any sense. And since I know we don't really share many of the same private interests, bringing here would just make her less comfortable, you know? We don't even like the same sorts of movies or music or do the same things in our free time. I told her I'd meet her for lunch if she was up for it, because meeting her out in a restaurant is more neutral territory, where we're not stuck trying to find common ground. I make no damn sense. Oh well. Ka, don't worry too much about what you say when you blog; it's an online diary, after all. :D I mean, just look at ME blather. You at least say coherent, insightful things half of the time, which is far more than one can say for me. Luna's playing a free acoustic concert in Borders on Tuesday. I think I'll drop by. They have an actual concert that night, but hey... I got a SHITLOAD of doujinshi today, too, courtesy of Kya's last-minute DJ shipment. <3 <3 Now Playing: Luna - Black Champagne Tuesday, May 21, 2002, 04:22 p.m. ....Boy, I should have remembered this earlier, but... Nymphea is French (and perhaps Latin, it's the Genus name) for waterlilies. There's a word for this, Kya. You know what it is. Say it, Kuro-chan! Say it! I would also like to point out that Junnosuke was also known as the 1337 ninja-master Fuyou (•‡—u). >_> <_< Now Playing: Husker Du - Something I Learned Today Tuesday, May 21, 2002, 02:07 p.m. Beancrock.Hn. Finished the first two Chrestomanci books today. Yep, Kristi, Ka, I preferred Christopher to Cat too. I haven't read good fantasy in a while. Gives me warm and fuzzy feelings. >D Let's see, what did I do over the past few days. I've been going to movies with my mother, since my dad's out of the country, and so far I've seen Episode Two twice (once on Thursday, once on Sunday) and About a Boy once. About A Boy's not bad, I guess; I rather liked it. And before I discuss what I thought of Episode Two, I'll explain how Krisit and I broke our brains on Sunday. Basically, we watched Blackadder 5 before we went to see Episode 2. After that, our brains reeling from the banality of the movie, Krisit suggested that we purged the evil from our brains by watching Velvet Goldmine. Well, that was an INTERESTING mistake, to say the very least. We located my DVD, popped it in, and spent the next two hours or so giggling furiously as our brains tried to somehow reconcile the two Ewans we'd seen tonight. (Plus there was me rocking back and forth in a fetal position whimpering that the VG soundtrack repeatedly violates me with Roxy Music and Brian Eno and T. Rex and Iggy. I knew this before...I have the soundtrack...I've seen the movie many times before...but it'd been at least a year since I'd seen it, so the music wiggled its tentacles at me and I was surprised anew, as if I'd never seen it before.) By the time we'd finished watching VG, our brains were flopping about like stranded fish, and all we could think was "Bowieeee Iggy gheiiii." So we went our separate ways and, oh, BTW, the Music Pimping page has been updated. This week it's Bowie, of course. Ahem, so, well, onto my thoughts on Episode Two. In short, I thought the last 45 minutes were cool, Jedi doing 1337 stuff was cool, the fact that Palpatine took over through political machinations instead of a standard military coup was interesting...but the rest of the movie was overwhelmingly blah. I'd heard from people that the movie was cool but there was "too much romance." I dismissed that as the opinion of guys who don't like "mushy stuff," but you know, they're right. The romance was godawful. Oh my god. And the dialogue in most of the movie was truly horrific. What does Lucas do, flip through a Harlequin novel and have Amidala and Anakin read assorted lines? I wanted to kill him for the "we'd be living a lie!" line. If I had my way, that line would be outlawed for movies. I've never heard of anyone who actually says that in real life. I'm annoyed that Lucas screwed up the romance that horribly. It was so - so - 12-year-old boy-ish, which I suppose fits with his target demographic but makes anyone else watching it cringe. Even the actors look perplexed sometimes at what they're saying. Check out the scene of the first kiss; Amidala says, rather uncertainly, "No. I shouldn't have done that." Anakin: "I'm...sorry? @_@; ?_?" See, this is annoying because a) the romance is important (can't get the whiny Skywalker kids if the elder Skywalkers don't get it on, and Anakin's turning will probably have something to do with Amidala too...) and b) since it's important, we can't cut it from the story, we have to sit through AGES of boring, cringe-inducting mush. I think it would have been tolerable if Lucas had staged the romance AFTER a bunch of the action had taken place, such as DURING or AFTER the whole Dooku thing. Then you could buy the whole mad passion for each other. I mean, heck, Han and Leia only started getting romantic after two whole movies. >_> More later. Gotta do a conference call. Now Playing: Big Black - Fish Fry Thursday, May 16, 2002, 03:49 p.m. "Some people have acid flashbacks. I have Bowie flashbacks.""*snicker*" Well, the network was down at work all week, and for some reason, this sapped my will to blog. o.o; Anyways. The PuuMobile's front left tire was catching when I made left turns, so I left it at my mother's and am now using my cousin's Civic while he's in India. I swear, I feel like I'm driving a Go-Kart sometimes. I guess I'm just too used to big stationwagons. Compared to the PuuMobile, this thing accelerates the instant I touch the pedal and turns on a dime. Yesterday at work I opened up the Chicago Tribune and read the front-page story in the Entertainment section that Sony was slashing prices $100 for the PS2 and just about halving the price of accessories. I folded the paper, put it away, did my work, went home, went on a walk, had dinner....and then broke down, drove to Best Buy, and emerged with a big dark blue box. It's funny. I went to the PS2 aisle, dumped the box into my cart, and a salesminion materialized to "help" me. Once he ascertained that yes, I had owned a gaming system before and yes, I knew exactly which end of a PS2 to plug the controller into, he knew he was dealing with a Josei Gamer and stopped trying to sell me accessories I didn't need. Then I became their best friend and got game recommendations and all that. I always find female gamer syndrome to be pretty amusing (we're assumed to be incompetent until we correctly locate and press the power button, and then all of a sudden we're Special Human Beings). Anyways, the one game I ended up picking up was Rez and man, that was worth every penny. I'd heard about it in Japan from Kya, who had played it once and described it to me as a kind of game where you float through this polygon world and shoot targets to the beat of the techno BGM. I picked up the BGM in Japan, and it's good...but man, paired with the game it's mind-numbingly hypnotic. I love this game. The premise, such as it is, is that you're virtually hacking your way through different layers of a firewall, shooting the defenses as they appear. The only buttons you use are the analogue joystick or keypad and the X button (the O button has a purpose. One day I'll figure it out. It's the "overdrive" button). Anyways, you hold down the X, sweep the target across the screen with the keypad to highlight as many enemies as you want, and release the X to shoot them. And amazingly enough, if you do this to the beat of the music, it works so incredibly well, because your shots provide the beats. You hax0r your way through 10 layers of the firewall, and take on the main security system. Oh, and as you take damage, you devolve (like Vibri in Vib Ribbon) and as you successfully destroy enemies, you evolve into another form. I've only ever evolved one stage, so...anyways. It's weird and trippy and full of flashing lights and spinning polygons and I plugged in my headphones and thought my brain was being siphoned into the game through the music. It's just that good. Of course, since it requires constant button-mashing, your hands want to fall off after about 30 minutes, but that's a small price to pay. So, anyway. It's good. I went into the blood bank to give blood. All week I'd had messages on my machine from the bank, saying that there was a critical shortage of my blood type and they really needed me to come in. It's the least I could do; what kind of doctor would I be if I couldn't even do this little? I'm O+, the most common type. O blood is the universal donor (well, O- is the TRUE universal donor, but since about 85% of people are Rh+, O+ is a pretty good universal donor too.) So, anyways. You. Go give blood. Whoops, 1.5 hour meeting interrupted this. I'll finish it later. :D Now Playing: the notwist - Pilot Monday, May 13, 2002, 11:53 a.m. o/~ If you don't yes, then I'll never no... o/~OK, deleted this entry because a) it made NO SENSE when I reread it this morning, and b) I'm in a much better mood now. This weekend's pet project with Kristi...fu fu fu. Music Pimping: It'll Eat Your Brain Why? Because it's fun. >D Haven't been doing much this weekend besides resting. Actually, no. When I get home tonight I've got something to say about mp3s. Now Playing: Brian Eno - St. Elmo's Fire Friday, May 10, 2002, 11:49 p.m. Kya, the world's out to get you.Kya-chan? Check out this IchiRuki fanart. I stared at it and burst into evil laughter. Now Playing: Big Black - Bad Penny Thursday, May 9, 2002, 05:55 p.m. Fun with referrers, because I have to report these.08 May, Wed, 20:24:43 Yahoo: comparing odysseus to britney spears 08 May, Wed, 23:43:46 Google: Master of Mosquiton Nude pictures .... Now Playing: Big Black - He's a Whore Thursday, May 9, 2002, 04:30 p.m. "I think she wanted you involved so she could have someone to browbeat.""...." Never good words to hear at work. I have a massive headache; the latest project has been a pain in the ass and I've only been involved for three days. >_> Let's ignore work. I'm home. Krisit ponders how to improve schools. One more thing I'd add: 11. Decrease class sizes. Which, I suppose, would involve hiring more teachers and having the money to spread around the kids. But I swear, having twenty-five screaming children and one teacher (plus one student teacher, maybe) just will not work out for either student or teacher. I remember middle school; we had about 25 kids in my class, and I spent half of my time goofing off or being shanghai'd into keeping an eye on the five kids next to me. Because the teacher was just spread too thin. I'd also like to point out that segregating the genders does not lead to love and peace and focused studying. Sure, the girls and boys aren't getting distracted trying to impress each other. They're just getting distracted being assholes to each other. Come on, you all remember high school, who was the worst to you? Members of the opposite sex, or of your own gender? Girls drive each other nuts with their stupid bullshit, and guys are jerks to each other. Even without the opposite sex to posture in front of. Human nature. Or something. And the video game felony thing. I was the one arguing against you last night, right, Krisit? Basically, my only problem with this is that you said it would shut parents up a little. I said no, because people are fucking whiners, and they'll find something else to blame instead of themselves. We'll have the regulation, and people still won't shut up. Other than that, sure, why not. The regulation will maybe keep the idiots who believe that Solid Snake is telling them to kill people from getting the video games, and the parents who trust their kids to play violent games before the age of 17 probably weren't raising a nutcase anyways. Or so I hope. You and I, Krisit, and many of our friends, are prime examples of people who played horribly violent videogames at a young age and still managed to avoid shooting up our schools. :P Maybe it's this thing I like to call my cerebrum. The mammalian brain, not the reptilian hindbrain. POLICE: HELDER WANTED SMILEY-FACE BOMB PATTERN. The first thought in my head was "goddamn space monkey." I also notice how the media still gleefully seizes on the fact that He Was In A Rock Band and Liked Heavy Metal and Grunge and Liked To Chat On The Internet. "The top things I care about are my girlfriend ... and my music/band. I party, play guitar, and talk online to everyone. That's my life." Former classmates told The Associated Press that Helder loved the grunge band Nirvana and idolized its lead singer, Kurt Cobain, who killed himself in 1994. And I say...what exactly is the relevance of this? Would they add those details for an adult criminal? "Well, your honor, we found a volume of the collected plays of Shakespeare in his lair. Therefore he must have been inspired to eat his victims from reading too much Titus Andronicus." "Damn that Shakespeare." Again, highlighting the usual suspects when kids do stupid shit: music, the internet, tv...although I must admit his foster parents seem normal enough people. My opinion is this. Sure, there may be dark, violent, depressing things in music and tv and on the internet. But only a GODDAMN IDIOT actually ACTS on them. Screw it, I'm so tired after work today that I hate humanity in general. Well, I just have a very low opinion of our collective intelligence. Krisit, you'll drive the getaway car, right? Various other things happened, but I have no energy. Later. Now Playing: Adam Ant - Whip in my Valise Thursday, May 9, 2002, 03:45 a.m. Hya-ha!Sorry, I really couldn't help it. It's been a good evening of pimping music to my friends and trying to organize my jellies. Blog about more serious things in the morning. Er, in five hours. Now Playing: New Order - Blue Monday Monday, May 6, 2002, 10:03 a.m. o/~ Frank Blank is the messenger of your doom and your destruction o/~Quiet, rainy morning. It was warm last night and I flicked on the A/C for half an hour before I finally slept. Woke up to another grey day and the sound of rain on my window. Despite the fact that I was only able to doze for three hours, I feel fine this morning. Thank god for youth and resilience. ;;^^ Kya, you can't blame me for having dreams about me or about SSHS! XD Well, only a few. Was this the dream about me that you were having when I woke you up with a phonecall? ...and the Seven Sisters High School uniform is a very nice uniform. Panders to my uniform- and suit-wang. I miss seeing about 50 nicely-dressed men daily in Japan. >_> America, the land where uniforms/suits have been forgotten. ;_; Krisit has been posting a lot about popular fanfic/authors that she dislikes. The reactions have varied from flat-out agreement to a few comments that what she's saying isn't really nice or productive, and that they expected the internet to be more civilized than the real world. After guffawing at the last sentence, I thought I'd comment on that point of view, and throw in my own two cents on the whole discussion. Well, both sides have merit. Kristi wasn't pulling any punches with her assessments of the fics. You WILL note, however, that she made sure to clarify that it wasn't a personal attack on the author, and really it isn't. She simply didn't sugar-coat her opinions of the fics in the manner we've usually been taught is necessary to salvage the fragile egos of the authors. If I were to review fics (and I'm dreadful with C&C of my own friends' fics; they basically have to corner me in a small enclosed space where I can't escape or procrastinate. A 3-hour car ride usually works well), I'd probably phrase it differently than she would, because I'm a wuss and can't bring myself to only focus on the bad points of a fic. I'm the fscking Luke Skywalker of reviewing when faced with Darth Fanfic. "There is still good in you, I know it!" That being said, even if Kristi was harsher in her reviews than we're used to seeing, must ALL reviewing be ego-fluffing? Is any sort of negative comment brushed off as "oh, she's just being mean to me!" Do we still just want to be treated like toddlers, where every crayon scribble we make is tacked onto the giant refrigerator door known as ff.net and cooed over by adoring parents/friends/visitors? If you want an ego boost, isn't the ego boost you get from DESERVED praise (meaning that you wrote well and people are genuinely impressed by you) better than kneejerk "oh that was great, write more" response you get just because the reviewer's too nice to say anything bad? If you're writing to be social or to fit in with the rest of the ML/group/whatever, won't you feel better if your writing is on par with the rest of that group? If you want mindless affirmation, make like Stuart Smalley and blow yourself kisses in the mirror. On the other hand, I also think that purely negative reviews are equally useless for both author and reviewer (unless the writing is JUST THAT BAD). Reviewing should highlight the author's weak points that should be eliminated, but it should also point out the things the author did RIGHT, so that they can do them AGAIN. In combination with criticism, praise isn't just ego-fluffing; it's recognition of the author's (fledgling) abilities. If the reviewer wants the author to write better, they should show the author what they did RIGHT. That's what I try to do when I give my friends C&C, at least. Keeping that all in mind, here's a few paragraphs from an article I found lying on my seat when I got in to work this morning. (FWIW, I correct people's writing for a living; I'm an editor. Er...don't judge my writing quality from my blog. Heh heh. ^_~ It doesn't make me a better writer or a more authoritative critic of writing, but it gives me greater-than-average experience in this area.) This article summarizes several points that I think every writer would do well to keep in the back of their mind. It was originally about writing business or legal articles, so pardon the ellipses. The points are still EXTREMELY VALID. Good Words for Writing James W. McElhaney, from the ABA Journal, May 2002. POLISH THE COPY It's what you do after you've written the first draft that makes the difference between dull, disjointed mediocrity and writing that sparkles with good ideas. First, put the draft aside for a while so you won't be too attached to the words you picked and how you piled them together. It will make revisions a lot less painful. Then go somewhere where you can read the draft out loud to yourself and listen to what you've written. It's amazing how your ear will catch awkward passages that slide right past your eyes. HONE THE LEAD Everything you write is a conversation you have with your readers. So use your lead to draw then in hearing what you have to say. Trim and edit and polish it until it sings. CLEAR OUT THE CLUTTER Creating a unified, coherent theory of what you are saying is the most important thing you can do...Unconnected facts sow instant confusion. Yet, it's...tradition to lard everything...with inappropriate language...that [doesn't] belong. Why? Fear. It's the nagging realization that you are more likely to be criticized for leaving out something important than for putting in something useless. Thus does the serpent of obfuscation slither into the Eden of communication. (insert list of cliches/redundant phrases to be avoided or replaced) HIGHLIGHT WHAT REALLY COUNTS ...Use short, crisp sentences. They say, "Pay attention - this counts." I think that if ficcers tried to keep these suggestions in mind when writing, reviewers wouldn't be forced to mindlessly ego-fluff OR tear fics apart. Yes, I'm the nice one, and I like to encourage people to write. But it doesn't mean I'll tolerate this feel-good ego-stroking self-esteem-at-all-costs BS that seems to infest the fic world. Wow, I'm so mellow this morning. Damn you, Pixies. Got evaluated at work today, and it's all gravy. ...probably not gonna get a raise, though. Nobody is. >_> Now Playing: Pixies - Debaser (yeah, this is mellow music for me. XD) |
