Wednesday, April 12, 2006

watching as my cigarette is spinning smoke into the wind---watching as the time goes by i think about the fix i'm in
Ugh. I feel so tired right now, which is a little odd since I slept throughout the plane ride home.

Anyway, the show was a lot of fun. My sister and I got fifth row seats, which basically put us about 10 feet away from the rink. I only vaguely remember each performance, so I'll just run through the more memorable parts.

The Really Cute Moments
- Anything involving Kimmie Meissner. She's absolutely adorable in person, and she's so tiny, like a graceful little fairy. In the middle of her first skate, she stopped right in front of my section and posed for pictures. Awww. (FYI, Irina Slutskaya also posed for pictures in front of my section.)

- The entirety of Evan's second program. The first half was hip-hop and the second half was more country, and his skating reflected the change in music. It was very entertaining, probably my favorite program of the night.

- A couple moments involving Plushenko (otherwise known as the Men's Olympic Gold Medalist). First, since Plushy is an audience-pleasing whore, near the end of his second program he stopped in front of my section and blew a kiss to the audience. Then, while leaving the rink, he fumbled over the exit, composed himself, then did a "ta-da!" pose. Very cute.

- At the end, while re-introducing all the skaters, Johnny did a little dance to the music playing in the background. Also very cute.

Things I Took Note Of
- Kind of an odd thing to notice, but Michelle Kwan has really nice flowing hair. I wish I knew what conditioner she uses.

- I guess I didn't take note of this during the Olympics, but Shizuka Arakawa has very elegant arm gestures. (My sister noticed this as well.)

- EDIT: One thing I forgot to add, before Arakawa's first skate, a small group of people yelled, "Ganbare!"

My OMG!Moment Of The Night
- At the very end of the show, the skaters all took to the ice and threw autographed giveaways to the audience. I didn't get anything, and by the time I made it to the edge of the rink, Johnny was already long gone. Evan, however, stopped RIGHT NEXT TO ME to autograph another girl's sign. He has a very loopy signature. :3

The showcase will be televised on ABC some time on Sunday afternoon, I think. Who knows, I might be on television.
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Sunday, April 9, 2006

a sanctuary--where fears and lies melt away
A message for anyone who tries to contact me within the next few days: I'm leaving for the figure skating show tonight, and I won't return until sometime on Wednesday. So if you send me anything, don't expect a reply until Wednesday at the earliest.

Watched V for Vendetta yesterday. It's quite interesting, though I didn't like the ending, specifically how they tried to humanize V. His feelings for Portman's character seemed waaaay too forced; it's like seeing Batman fall in love with Robin. Ewww, just no.

The majority of the movie, however, was very entertaining and well-done. I appreciated the little metaphors snuck in throughout the film, especially the Count of Monte Cristo reference ("...they cared more about revenge than they did about the woman").

Moving on, my musings on KH2 (FYI, I only made it up to Hollow Bastion before I was forced to stop playing):

First off, that opening is pure art. MUCH better than the original's. Seeing Heartless Riku in an FMV sequence is enough to satiate my inner fangirl for most of the game. That aside, I loved watching the Chain of Memories scenes really come to life.

Second, the story progression is a lot smoother this time around. With the original KH, I felt that the story didn't really kick in until Hollow Bastion, whereas in the sequel, pretty interesting stuff happens from the very beginning. Plus, the plot itself is so much more appealing to me what with the coated Nobodies practically stealing the show. *loves on Axel*

I don't like the concept of limit break sequences, though I admit Square did a commendable job of working the sequences in without detracting from the battle itself; this is what God of War's mini-boss battles should have been more like.

On a sillier note, does anyone else find mini-Seifer absolutely hilarious? He's such a little fruit. I mean, he shows off his bellybutton for chrissakes!

For anyone interested, here's the KH opening brought to you via YouTube.
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Friday, April 7, 2006

SPRING BREEEEEEEAAAAAAAAK!

In other words, my time to finally catch up on watching anime and writing SOAP stuff. And tomorrow, I'm finally seeing V for Vendetta, and my friend will hopefully bring KH2 to play at my house afterwards.

Fun Fact About Me: I'm the biggest potty mouth when I play video games. I don't usually curse often; I just get really PO'd when I'm on the verge of losing something. Luckily, I don't throw my controller across the room in frustration or anything like that. XD

I've been too busy the last few days to know the goings-on of fandom, so instead, here's a Fun, Somewhat Offensive Fact About Japan: In underground culture, the Nazi uniform is a fashion statement. Mind you, NOT because they support Nazi ideals, but because the uniform itself looks hot. (In comparison to Americans, the Japanese as a whole are much less sensitive on issues concerning Nazi Germany.)

Stateside, this fashion trend caused some controversy in multiple fandoms. The most notable one I've come across was a long discussion on a L'Arc~en~Ciel LJ community over why Hyde came on-stage during a concert dressed as a Nazi. Also, some Japanese fanartists are notorious for drawing characters in Nazi uniforms. In the DMC fandom, for example, an exceptional fanart of Nazi Vergil circulated, and caused many amusing "Vergil's a Nazi?!" threads.

EDIT: I like how the news posts now feature the news posters' actual names. :)
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Tuesday, April 4, 2006

Quickie Post: One week until the Figure Skating showcase! It's out-of-state, in South Carolina, and because we're staying there for a couple days, my sister rented a car. Though, aside from the exhibition, we still have no idea what we're going to do over there.

(Also, my dad informed me that he's already received the tickets for the Play! concert. Thank God for TicketMaster.)

In more traveling-related news, my school's Japanese 3 & 4 classes are visiting Japan over spring break. Lucky bastards. (Japanese 2 isn't allowed to go just yet.) Since I've been wanting to visit Japan since 7th grade, I'm especially bitter over this. *whine complain flail!*

And I think just about everybody is playing Kingdom Hearts 2 except for me.

Bell = :(
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Sunday, April 2, 2006

we're just a million little gods causin' rain storms turnin' every good thing to rust
WARNING: The following rant might make some people a little uncomfortable.

I can't quite grasp the causes of the anti-feminist beliefs held by many yaoi/slash fangirls.

I could understand if they, like me, have a general dislike for overly-emotional and/or submissive girls, but if you take a look at about 90% of slash fanfiction posted on the Pit of Voles, the uke of the typical slash pairing is not only characterized as submissive, but also sensitive, emotional, virginal, helpless, and even subservient; basically, they're turned into the stereotypical obedient, housewifey female.

It certainly seems hypocritical of them to blatantly rag on females, then practically turn their male characters into one. The only possible reason I can think of is that most girls are in it for the hot bishounen sex, but have no idea as to how to go about an actual gay relationship. So instead, they stick to what they know--the conventional straight couple.

EDIT: As for the anti-feminism, there may be two general causes. Many girls may feel that their preferred slash pairing is "threatened" by its het counterpart(s) and retaliate because of it. In other words, it has nothing to do with the female characters themselves; just the fact that the pairing is het makes yaoi fans feel threatened by it. For other girls, it may be a case of "monkey see, monkey do." (Admittedly, I blindly agreed with others on fandom-related issues plenty of times in the past.) And for now, I'll leave it at that.

Moving on, I don't normally put non-Japanese songs on here, but I decided I should spread the British rock love: The Futureheads - Hounds of Love (direct link)

Also, I found this thread on the Death Eyes LJ community: The Ongoing Light vs. Raito Debate. I think this comment is especially interesting:

There's no way he can have "Light" as his legal romanization. We have a law on that (in Japan) and we have to follow something called "hebon-shiki," which results his name to be spelled Raito.

So, according to hebon-shiki, my name is Beru. Or for the longer version, berupikkuru. *loves katakana*
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Thursday, March 30, 2006

there is more to me than any demon will ever come to know.
Last summer, one very intriguing discovery I made within the video game fandom was the growing popularity of fanscripts, which are basically fan-written gamescripts for a particular series. It's essentially fanfiction, just written in a form much more suitable for video games.

I finally got around to reading Dwarfkicker's Devil May Cry Fanscripts, and damn are they good. Admittedly, I've only read Chronicles of a Legend and Resurrection of Evil, but they certainly are impressive. I particularly enjoyed Chronicles of a Legend. I appreciate how the author took a character that barely appeared in the canon, and expanded upon him in a way that was both believable and highly interesting. It's excellent work, and I highly recommend it to anyone familiar with the DMC series.

Speaking of fanfiction-esque writing, I am really struggling with the L article. Creative writing is my favorite form of writing, but it's also the most difficult for me. I have very little problem with writing guides, editorials, and most analyses, but I struggle with conveying imagery, emotions, etc.

Blah. Does anyone else have this problem or am I just insane?

Anyway, something amusing: Japanese Computer Error Messages.

Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.
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Tuesday, March 28, 2006

it's alright 'cause there's beauty in the breakdown
First off, I'm VERY excited over the announcement stating there'll be a second season of Honey and Clover. More penniless, half-starved college student fun for all!

Anyway, on the SOAP front, we're on the verge of completing a big project helmed by Shinkiro. I hope you all take a look at it once it's finished, since she's putting a lot of effort into putting it together. (In comparison, I'm the lazy admin. :P)

Also, I've been considering writing a humor article on, of all things, Japan's Engrish phenomenon. I, however, already have one other monster of an article and two collabs to write, so I've decided to put that idea up for grabs. Anyone want it?

Now here's a picture I found very, very cute (click to see in full size):



BABY L! *ignores the other two*
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Sunday, March 26, 2006

the dawn shall wash the sands in red
I just bought the tickets for the Play! concert, one for me and another for a friend who's tagging along. Got the cheapest ones available, and it was still almost $100. *grumble*

On a completely unrelated note, my parents just spent around two hours solving a logic-based riddle from a video game. They took extensive notes and everything. XD

Found these two videos while surfing through YouTube:

A 15-second commercial for the Death Note movies. It doesn't reveal much of anything, really, but hey.

A much more interesting 30-second clip showing the filming of the Raye Penber scenes. FYI, the dude playing Raye is the same actor from the live-action GTO DVD special. Small J-world?

L icon of the week:


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Friday, March 24, 2006

Me: There's a game in Japan where they use chopsticks to transfer ice cubes from one glass to another.
D: ...What?
Me: Seriously. They pile the ice cubes on top of each other, and whoever makes the pile fall loses. It's like the Japanese poor man's version of Jenga.

E: That's the little girl who kicked that guy's ass in Judo.
N: Girl? Where are her boobs?
E: Japanese girls don't have boobs.

Then, we played with a ramune soda bottle, tried to use straws as chopsticks, and talked about getting whacked on rice. Best anime club EVER.

That aside, I'm just about to make the final touches on the article, and I'm definitely submitting it afterwards. Surprisingly, the article is, for the most part, spoiler-free. So READ IT. I am, however, a little nervous over how it turned out. I just don't feel comfortable analyzing theme; even if I have strong supporting information, it always feels like I'm BS-ing it.

Anyway, since I can't stand to have only one article listed under my section, I'll be sending in a new article idea for the SOAP update this Sunday. It's an idea that I've had in mind for a while now, but participation from other members is necessary in order for it to work. If it garners enough volunteers, I assure you all that it will be very interesting.
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Wednesday, March 22, 2006

"Well, you know how crowded China is. Two bicycles crash and 10,000 people die."
First off, the RoV/Gankutsuou article is finally near completion. I'll probably submit it either late tomorrow night or early friday morning.

Second, I found this post over on Fandom Wank:

This is what happens when a guy gamer chokes on his own testosterone.

I find it more funny than offensive, probably because I've spent enough time around guy gamers to become more or less indifferent towards their "girls play video games?!" attitude.

I assume this isn't a problem within RPG fandoms, since females seem to account for a significant percentage of RPG fans.

Within the fandoms for more male-oriented games, however, there is a VERY, VERY sharp division between male and, albeit the very few, female fans, so I could understand how gamers such as the one above are produced.

On that note, I'm a proud Devil May Cry fan, and I'm MUCH better at it than most guys I know. HA, SUCK IT.
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